A new bird species for the garden this morning, a stock dove (skogdue) in the company of a woodpigeon? Stock doves are very rare breeders in my area, but seem to becoming more common. In fact, apart from one observation in 1928 and, remarkably, one bird on exactly the same day on the other side of Trondheim, I recorded the first stock dove in my county (Trøndelag) on 13th May 1982 at Malvikodden on the other side of the bay from where I live and the first spring after I moved to Norway. I would probably have missed it as I only heard the song, which I was familiar with from living in Scotland. Although breeding was never proven, singing birds were observed on Malvikodden until the last observation in 1987. It was then almost 20 years before the next breeding observation in Trøndelag (see the histogram).
An article was written about this by a neighbour, Stein Are Sæther;
Sæther 1987: Skogdua i Trøndelag. Trøndersk Natur 14: 86-94.
Number of breeding registrations of stock dove in Trøndelag from 1980 to 2021 (NB! there are several registrations of the same breeding pair, so this is not a true record of trends)
Number of records of stock dove in Trøndelag from 1980 to 2021 (NB! there are several registrations of the same birds, so this is not a true record of trends)
Malvikodden is a fantastic mixed woodland area on the other side of the bay (Malvikbukta) from where I live, sadly largely felled by heavy machinery… anyway, it still has an amazingly rich flora with lowland species growing alongside plants you would normally associated with the mountains growing on rocks next to the fjord including purple saxifrage (Saxifraga oppositifolia) which normally blooms early in April. The south side of Malvikodden has/had one of the densest communities of song birds in our area thanks to the large diversity of deciduous trees. The only known breeding of stock dove (skogdue) in our region is here. A campaign “Bevar Malvikodden” (Save Malvikodden) lead by local man Pål Malvik luckily (by one vote) fought off plans to make the area a “Friluftsområdet” (recreational area) some years ago, including a large car park for hundreds of vehicles and a road to empty toilets on planned beaches on both sides of the area… We believed at the time that the area was too small that it would ever be felled…
Click the link below to get a list (Excel) of plants registered at Malvikodden and Malvikbukta, including 179 species of flowering plant, almost 10% of all found in Norway!
