Monday 2 January 2017

2016 The Year That Was III

July to September covers our summer holiday with visits to the mountains of central southern Norway and to the north of Norway in July, plus wader passage in August and my annual rarity hunting trip to Værøy in September.

July
lekking Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) always a highlight of the summer in Beitostølen
where Dotterel (boltit) also breed


plus Scaup (bergand) which is becoming a very scarce breeder in southern Norway
upland areas are also still good for Cuckoos (gjøk)


on the long drive to Bodø I found this male Capercaille in the middle of the night (still light) in the middle of nowhere
almost the first bird I found when close to the cabin was the White-winged Scoter (knoppsjøorre) that I first found last summer


Siberian Jay (lavskrike)
Red-necked Phalarope (svømmesnipe) and food
This (and on one day a second) Surf Scoter (brilleand) was in the same area as the W-w Scoter



Black-throated Divers (storlom)

August

when we got home I was keen to secure an Akershus tick in the form of this Little Egret (silkehegre) at Fornebu. The summer holiday cost me three county tick (Terek Sand, White Stork and Caspian Tern)
August is now proving to be a very good time to see Honey Buzzards (vepsevåk) especially in Maridalen when adult birds that have previously been invisible suddenly become much easier to see as they range widely searching for food for large young in a distant nest


August is a good time for (distant) waders at Årnestangen. Here Little Stint, Broad-billed Sand, Curlew Sand and Dunlin

Greenshank
Hobby (lerkefalk) was very scarce in the early summer but became easier to see in August once young had fledged


Wood Lark

September

Whooper Swans again bred succesfully in Maridalen and raised 7 young which s far as I can see is the largest recorded brood size for the species
Knot (polarsnipe) were unusually numerous on autumn passage around Oslo


Arctic Tern (left) and Common Tern - not often one sees these species together in Oslo
and Oslo's first reported Shag (toppskarv)


the autumn of 2016 saw a very significant invasion of Hawk Owls into southern Norway. A couple were found moribund in urban Oslo and after a bit of convalesing were released in Maridalen including this bird which 
1cy Dunlin
Short-eared Owl (jordugle)



Værøy gave my first Norwegian Turtle Dove
and as expected lots of Yellow-browed Warblers



plus an unexpected adult Red-throated Pipit
back home this Rough-legged Buzzard was hunting rodents in the same field as.......


the staging Taiga Bean Geese
a seawatch as Krokstrand gave no seabirds but in the bushes my first ever Akershus Yellow-browed Warbler was a much better find

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