Early Woodcock

The sun shone today and the skies were blue – it feels like months since we last felt the warmth of the sun. We had to get out and enjoy this rare natural phenomenom but a strong southerly wind meant it never felt that warm. Where else than Fornebu for a nice family walk? Nothing really special to see but this good weather is forecast for all of next week so I suspect that some raptors and the first cranes will appear. Surprise of the day was a Woodcock (rugde) flying over the road near the house as we came home in the late afternoon. Where it came from and where it was going is anyones guess but unexpected was it most definitely.

Here is a video of the usual questionable quality of yesterday’s Tundra (rossicus) Bean Geese, this time with a spoken sound track.

A genuine wild goose chase

I'm a happy man today, make that very happy! Despite constant rain, strong winds (although their southerly direction was the right one) and general greyness Per Christian and I decided to go on yet another wild goose chase. This time we dropped the Glomma as I didn’t believe there was any chance of the geese turning up there for at least a week and headed first for Bjørkelangen. We briefly checked out Svellet and Snekkervika in Nordre Øyeren which despite being ice free and having exposed muddy edges were as good as bird free – clearly there is no food here yet. Merkja was still full of Whooper Swans (170) though and the Brent (ringgås) is still there. Here they are feeding amongst flooded reeds and grass which seem to provide a lot of organic sustenance.

At Søndre Haneborg the Bean Goose (sædgås) flock was still present but equally wary and despite our best intentions flushed at a distance of over 300 metres. I still want to get a good look at all the geese but today’s views on the ground and in flight seem to confirm that there are 32 fabalis and one rossicus. A flock of 70 Lapwing (vipe) on the fields was very high for such an early date and we even heard their evocative display call which for a second made me forget the rain driving into my face.

We checked out the flooded fields at Kjelle and Bjørkelangen but had just the same numbers of Whooper Swans, Greylag and Canada Geese as yesterday. We planned to drive down to the flooded valley at Bergsjø and try to find access points which we failed to find yesterday (after having done some research overnight) but I heard I had an email and checked on my phone. It was a really exciting mail! One of the researchers of the Scottish Bean Geese had been in Denmark yesterday and seen that a flock of 40 birds containing the satellite/GPS tagged bird 07 had flown off North East i.e direction Oslo! Then the latest data download confirmed that the birds were on their way. The overnight plots had shown that they had turned round at some point and the last plot was from Lysakermoen which is a well known wetland and a good place for them to rest. The weather was good in Denmark yesterday but at some point on their journey they would have hit the rain and low cloud over Norway which may have pushed them down.

the map I received on my phone showing the journey of tag 07 yesterday with the last plot being at Lysakermoa some time during last night

 I now suddenly wanted to head for the Glomma but PC wasn’t so sure that the birds would be there but I persuaded him..... So 40 minutes after reading the email we stopped the car at the fields at Horgen (after having already checked out the river at Udenes with no success). A scan of the stubble fields initially revealed nothing but as I finished a scan along the edge of some woodland I saw geese!!! They were in slightly unudualting ground right up against the woodland which would have been giving them shelter from the wind and rain and not only did we have Bean Geese, we had at least four with collars (confirming they were the Scottish birds) and also two White-fronted Geese (tundragås). It was difficult counting them but I came up with 43 Bean. Then we had a flock of 9 come in purposefully from the south, presumably directly from Denmark and one of these was also neck collared. We didn’t make any attempt to get close enough to read any collars – that can wait until better light which is forecast for next week but it was a hugely uplifting experience to be seeing these birds again and also thinking aboiut how the technology allows us to know so much about them and find them! These birds are here record early so it will now be interesting to see how long they on site. Brian from Scotland is visting to see them in a month’s time so we hope they stay that long.....

On the way back we once again checked out where 25 Pink footed Geese (kortnebbgås) had been reported two days ago. This time we came as good as confirming my suspicions when we found 28 Bean Geese but these were not fabalis as I had expected but rossicus (also easier to confuse with Pink-feet). These birds were resting on a muddy field close to the road but one which we had not given any attention to yesterday. These arrivals of Bean Geese of both subspecies are to my knowledge unprecedented although it could well be down to low (very low) observor coverage rather than something special this year.

The day finished off in Maridalen where the lake is nearly ice free with the remaining ice having been pushed up into the northerly bays. This is two months earlier than last year!

a crappy picture I know but it is at close to 400m range. Here you see the geese grazing right up against the trees. The inset shows a White-fronted goose and on the Bean Geese either side of it you can see neck collars - trust me!

The flock of 9 Bean Geese that arrived at 1307 presumably direct from Denmark. the bird in inset also has a neck collar

the traditional fields at Horgen. The geese were in front of the foremost trees but normally use the fields in the distance

the tundra (rossicus) Bean Geese we saw later in the day. Short necked and stubby billed

Chasing

A new day but the same old routine. There isn’t much in the way of news arrivals but it is spring (well nearly) and anything can happen. Spurred on a by a report of 25 Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) on the glomma river 20km south of the Bean Goose (sædgås) staging grounds Per Christian and I set out on a goose chase today. I suspect that the reported Pink-footed were actually Bean as there have been no other reports yet of migrating Pink-feets whilst Beans are turning up at various places but we didn’t find any geese along the Glomma although at Udenes there were a few swans and a single Canada Goose that were able to stand on the sand banks which although still under water are about to be exposed so things are looking promising.

Out in the valley near Bjørkelangen we found the Bean Goose flock but it was very wary and spooked when we were 200 metres away. We did get to see one rossicus well amongst them and a flock of 30 took flight (the same size as the flock on Tuesday) without me being able to see the exact composition although every other goose I saw was a fabalis. They left three fabalis on the deck which are presumably new arrivals. 20 minutes later and a few kilometres further down the valley we had three Bean Geese in flight which may well have been these three exploring the area or further new arrivals. We were unable to locate the flock of thirty although they did not appear to fly far but did find a Great Grey Shrike (varsler) whilst we searched.

There were noticeably fewer Whooper Swans (sangsvane) and Greylag Geese (grågås) today although Canada Geese numbers are the same. The carcass of the Whooper Swan at Kjelle that had collided with power lines was providing food for a couple of Ravens although a White-tailed Eagle would have been preferable. Lapwing (vipe) numbers are increasing but dabbling ducks were nearly completely absent.

We tried to explore a narrow flooded valley called Bergsjø which was flooded for a good 4 km but we found it very difficult to get any sort of overview although we did see that there were both Whooper Swans and Mallard here and it looked an exciting area.

The rossicus Bean Goose is the smaller one on the left with a shorter neck and smaller bill

the rossicis is the third bird from the left and can be seen to be a lot smaller

today's obligatory Whooper Swan picture

Whoopers

Grey, grey, grey. Been a while since I saw the sun and although it is above zero and the thaw continues it no longer feels like spring. I was out with James Ewen today with the hope of getting some footage but the rain and gloom meant that just wasn’t going to happen. We started at Østensjøvannet which is ice free and has now seen the various Mute Swan pairs take up residence again although it is still too early for any Great Crested Grebes (toppdykker) to have returned. A Great Grey Shrike was an unsual sight here but has been reported on and off for over a week.

In Maridalen we went searching for good film spots for beavers and succeeded in finding three dens (the word dam doesn’t feel right) and loads of evidence that they have been out and about all winter. We also saw tracks in the snow of Pine Marten (mår) an animal I have still to see. On Maridalsvannet yesterday’s record count of Whooper Swans had risen even more to 31 with just a single Mute to be seen.

I expect a scene like this on a "proper" wetland - not on my local patch!

Goosing

The grey, damp & cold weather continues although the winds veered to the east today after being from the south. I went searching for geese again today.

There was still nothing to see at the Bean Goose straging grounds along the Glomma River but the water level is noticeably lower and although the mudbanks are not exposed I suspect they will be in the course of a week or so which is a good sign. 21 Whooper Swans (sangsvane) flew north and two were on the river but there were none to be found in any of the fields in this area.

Around Bjørkelangen this was still lots of life and the Bean Geese (sædgås) had all come together with 28 fabalis and 2 rossicus. Totals in the valley were: 365 Whooper Swans, 65 Greylag Geese (grågås) and 135 Canada Geese (kanadagås). The large Mallard (stokkand) flock from Thursday had disappeared though with less than 10 birds showing themselves.

I drove as far as Hellesjøvannet which was ice free but also more or less bird free. Alongside six Goldeneyes (kvinand) though was a female Pochard (taffeland) which is a very early record.

On the way home I stopped at Merkja where the Whooper Swan flock numbers over 170 birds although no Bewick’s among them. The Brent Goose (ringgås) was still showing well though.

In Maridalen, 23 Whooper and 2 Mute Swans is probably a swan record for the lake and a sign that there has been some movement even if it was not immediately apparent further east.

some of the Whooper Swans on Maridalsvannet

Whooper Swans, Bean and Greylag Geese

setting the scene: the same field as above using the 150mm lens

the flooded field with Whooper Swans is also used by the Bean Geese

close of up some of Maridalsvannet's Whoopers

isn't Brent Goose small? Here with a Canada Goose and Whooper Swans