Wing bars

The storms that hit Norway yesterday reached Oslo and even though it felt pretty windy here the winds were less than a third as strong as those that hit the south coast. I gave the fjord at Fornebu a try but there were no seabirds here and although the winds have continued today they are now from the north which is not conducive to producing seabirds in these parts.

I therefore visited the Botanical Gardens again today and eventually turned up three Two-barred Crossbills but they are far from as cooperative as they were last week. There are far fewer berries on their favourite tree and they appear to only drop in briefly here and to be feeding mostly in larches. It was 40 minutes before I found them (in the berry tree) but they quickly moved to a larch and moved again from there after just a few minutes. Every time they flew though they were vocal so it is just a 

case of having patience and ears open.

Five Chaffinches (bokfink) were a very good Oslo winter record but only three Hawfinches (kjernebiter) showed themselves today. A male Goshawk put up everything at one stage but did not have a successful hunt.

Closer to home some of the Collared Doves (tyrkerdue) have moved to within sight of the house and three were feeding in a garden just 100 m away. Another five were where I had them earlier in the week and I would guess that they have only very recently moved to the local area.

When it is cloudy at this time of the year it is very poor light for photography and gets dark in the afternoon around 3pm so one has to make the most of the middle of the day.

male and female Two-barred Crossbill

the male

a female high up in a birch tree

 

The Green Birder

I’m worried that I ‘m losing it. Yesterday I met up with Marianne Skogsholm from Nordland to help her find the Two-barred Crossbills in the Botanical Gardens. I was unable to find them in an hour of looking (after also having drawn a blank on Monday) but she was able to find one later in the day and then Rune found there were still three there today.  And today when I was at Fornebu and couldn’t find any Bearded Tits another observer heard them just minutes after I left.

I was carless today so was doing one of my Oslo by foot and public transport days – good for the environment and good for me. Fornebu was very quiet (for me) with 8 Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis) and the male Kestrel (tårnfalk) the highlights. On the water a tight flock of 26 Tufted Ducks (toppand) were new arrivals pushed off some frozen inland lake. I got to grill some Redpolls today and one was a very frosty bird but none were of the Arctic variety.

Male Kestrel (tårnfalk) enjoying the low winter sun

another nearly decent flight shot

In Frognerpark the Tawny Owl (kattugle) was sunning itself and showing relatively well although its eyes were closed so it wasn’t much of a photo subject. I readied myself to take a picture when, and if, it opened its eyes and had the shutter speed quite low as wasn’t expecting much movement. The bird suddenly however decided not only to open its eyes, but to have a scratch and a big yawn, all of which I failed to capture sharply.

I couldn’t locate any scarce gulls on the lake at Frognerparken and the small park at Marienslyst was completely devoid of gulls. I suspect that the lack of snow is allowing the gulls to forage at many places around the city. A big dump of snow is forecast for tomorrow though which may cause the birds to congregate more in the usual places.

Tawny Owl (kattugle) having a scratch

look how big both the mouth and talon are

all very tiring

the black eyes of Tawny and Ural Owls are no where near as attractive as the yellow and black eyes of Hawk and Great Grey Owls

asleep

still asleep but using another white balance setting on the camera which greatly changes the impression of colour and illustrates how careful one needs to be interpreting pictures

All gone fruity

Whilst Norway’s small band of twitchers has been going bananas over the country's first record of Black-throated Accentor (svartstrupejernspurv) - I said thanks but no thanks to the offer of driving the 6+ hours each way on Saturday night - things have been quiet in Oslo. I have though been able to tick the bird virtually by watching this news report (some familiar faces to be seen).

After a week of excitement the Two-barred Crossbills seem to have moved on from the Botanical Gardens and there were generally fewer birds today although a flock of 150 Redpolls that dropped in and tried to drink from the small stream before being scared away by a cat looked interesting. I managed to get onto one very good Arctic candidate but didn’t see the rump before they all took off. Five Hawfinches (kjernebiter) and 2 Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb) were around and a couple of Chaffinches (bokfink) were an unusual December record for Oslo.

Closer to home I discovered a flock of 10 Collared Doves (trykerdue) in a place where I saw three birds a week ago. Collared Doves are declining in Norway and in Oslo are definitely a scarce bird away from a couple of regular localities. They are also quite loyal to small areas (individual gardens) so these birds may well have been here for a while (years?) although I would be shocked with myself if I have overlooked such obvious birds just 400 metres from where I write this.

Two-barred Crossbill video

I have finally got round to finishing the longer Two-barred Crossbill video from the footage I took from Monday through Wednesday. Editing full HD video really tests my PC and in the final video the sound and pictures have somehow lost synch but I really can't face another three hours of editing.

In the video there are a couple of pieces in the middle where you don't see very much but you do hear the calls of the birds which is why I have included them. You can here both the trumpet call and the other call which is more like a Common Crossbill with a hint of Redpoll.

Guess what?

Well I’m nothing if not predictable so after a fairly fruitless trip around Maridalen I found myself at the Botanical Gardens again. There was a bitter North West wind today but with glorious sunshine from a cloud free sky I hoped that there might be the chance for some marginally better pictures. As I was meeting James for some filming at Østensjøvannet at 1130 I left before the sun was at its highest but it is doubtful that the favoured fruit tree gets that much direct sunlight.

There were only four birds in the hour I was there and it was the reddest male who was missing. Given their tameness they must be easy prey for a Sparrowhawk or cat so it isn’t surprising their numbers have been depleted. With the warmer weather (once out of the wind) the frost that they had been eating has now disappeared although they did drop down onto the grass for a short period. I couldn’t really work out what they were eating/drinking from the grass but they quickly moved to the nearby path where it looked like they were digesting grit which is a well known for crossbills presumably as a help for digestion. Two of the birds - a male and a female - interacted by touching bills and it looked like they may have passed food between themselves. Although suggesting an adult feeding a youngster, the age of the birds (both 1cy) and time of the year means it must be some other type of behaviour. These two birds were often together and I believe are actually pair forming and that what I witnessed was courtship feeding. See for yourself in this video from today (I am still working on another video from the previous 3 days footage).

Otherwise I did get some pictures which may be better than the previous days efforts but I’m not sure I’m the best judge.

the first birds I saw in the berry tree were these Waxwings which are far more efficient than the Crossbills and just eat the whole berry

here are the Two-barred Crossbills (båndkorsnebb) eating grit

pretty happy with this one

the same bird in all four pictures - note how the perception of colours changes depending on the lighting

At Østensjøvannet the birds were a bit wary of the underwater camera we tried to use but the light was very good and there were some good shots. There are just two very small patches of open water left and amongst the hundreds of Mallards the young male Pintail made a good subject.

the Pintail was often on the receiving end of a lot of Mallard abuse

It's getting hot

guess what I went looking for today

half my bill seems to be missing

The day started at Fornebu in gorgeous sunlight and freezing temperatures. At about 10am though a warm front suddenly arrived (as forecast). I cannot remember ever experiencing anything similar: there was suddenly a fresh breeze and with it came warm air. I guess it went from -3C to +7C in the space of a minute.

Fornebu had a few good birds to offer but was relatively quiet otherwise. Five Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) and five Hawfinches (kjernebiter) were the scarcest whilst the male Kestrel (tårnfalk) was the most photogenic and gave me my best ever pictures of the species.

male Kestrel hovering directly over me

when it first appeared it was mobbed by some Redpolls one of which I captured in this picture. Look at that large white rump - looks like I should have grilled the Redpolls!

some distant reeds and for those with good imagination 5 Bearded Tits

this Redpoll did allow itself to be grilled but I am not completely wise to whether it is a Common Redpoll (gråsisik) or a Lesser Redpoll (brunsisik) but favour the latter.

5 Hawfinches were feeding on some sort of berry that appeared to be quite difficult to swallow!

I was however feeling a call and made my way into town. I stopped at Kongshavn where there were few duck although alongside 30 Tufted Ducks (toppand) were the two Velvet Scoters (sjøorre). Interestingly whilst I was watching them diving they were visibly spooked by a large fish and both popped out of the water like a cork and flapped away.

tail of fish beside female Velvet Scoter

a young male Velvet Scoter running away from the scary fish

For the third day running I made my way to the Botanical Gardens and the crossbills were performing in an exemplary fashion (this risks becoming my new addiction). They are not at all fussed by people and nearly landed at one person’s feet. I also had them feeding above me in the berry tree within the 2.2m focusing limit of my lens!

I know that I have bored the majority of the people who read this blog with my thoughts on aging and moult progression of these birds but I did notice one more interesting thing today. The greyer of the two females and the one that I have previously considered to be the youngest actually has come further in the moult of its tertials and has adult like tertials appearing whilst the other bird which has much greener (and therefore adult like) body feathers still has its juvenile tertials (see pictures below). Both would therefore appear to be 1st calendar year birds.

I succeeded in recording the calls today so now have a job to do in editing all the short video clips I have taken. Of course I took a few more (everything is relative) pictures of the 2BCs today and can’t resist publishing a few more. I have tried to focus on pictures showing their interesting feeding behaviour and exceptional dexterity. Note how they hold the berry stems in their feet whilst cutting through the flesh.

The two female Two-barred Crossbills. The bird on the left is far more advanced with its body moult with a lot of yellow/green feathers yet still has juvenile tertials (with very thin white edges). The bird on the left still has grey juvenile body feathers but note that it is growing adult like tertials with broad white edges. Clearly moult varies greatly with this species.

a less advanced male with juvenile tertials

the most advanced male showing his growing adult like tertials

the greyer female opening a berry

holding the berry with its feet

berry opened to allow access to the seeds

one of the males holding a berry with its feet by the stalk

here holding a berry with its claws

note how this berry has been very symetricaly sliced into by the crossed mandibles of a Two-barred Crossbill

Oslo Botanisk Garden shines

female Two-barred Crossbill (båndkorsnebb)

male Two-barred Crossbill

Well it would have been silly not to go back to and enjoy the 2BCs again, wouldn't it? The light was marginally better at times (although could be even better as it was still cloudy today) but I was also better with the camera settings so managed some better quality photos today. I was on site close to 4 hours and during that time observed a steady stream of admirers (at least another 10 birders!) as well as a very rich and varied bird life in the gardens.

Biggest surprise was a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) which suddenly appeared in the same tree as the crossbills. Three separate Goshawks (hønsehauk) including 2 youngsters which flew around together were good at flushing all the birds in the park. I noted at least 12 Hawfinches (kjernebiter), 3 Waxwings (sidensvans), 2 Chaffinch (bokfink), a Brambling (bjørkefink) and 8 Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb). Along with Greenfinch (grønnfink), Bullfinch (dompap), Redpoll (gråsisik) and Siskin (grønnsisik) there were an impressive 9 species of finch in the park today.

The 2BCs followed the same routine as yesterday although today spent longer feeding in the larch tree (always the same one). I watched them feeding high up in the larch where they were incredibly hard to locate and as usual nearly completely silent except before flying off.

not so easy to see high up in a larch tree - note how many cones there are

The birds were the same 5 as yesterday: 3 males and 2 females.  I see now that the males are all 1cy birds but in differing degrees of maturity (although the reddest male does have particularly wide white tips to the (growing) tertials suggesting it may be older although its body plumage shouts 1K). This link shows a fully adult male which has a MUCH redder plumage. Looking at the tertials also suggests that both females are 1K but that one has come much further in moulting its body feathers. Interestingly the "leader" of the flock is the young(est) female who both yesterday and today has been the first bird to move on and bring the others with her. I spent quite a bit of time trying to record the calls but due to their quietness I found this to be a difficult, frustrating and nearly fruitless task.

the three males in the same shot

The Common Crossbills yet again did not mix with their rarer cousins and fed exclusively in another larch tree with the odd visit to the stream to drink. They did once fly towards the berry tree when the 2BCs were in their larch and a couple landed in it but did not stay long and I did not see them feeding on the berries.

So what do you think of today's pictures? They are better I think as I forced down the ISO to 1600. Only problem was that the shutter speed was a lot lower which caused me to suffer when I was taking pictures of the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers as the shutter speed was too slow for sharp pictures so I didn't get anything like the pictures I should have.

obvious 1cy male with only very narrow white edges to the tertials

The redder male. A close up showing the still growing tertials - the three white tipped feathers growing on the top of the wing. When fully grown then the longest one will cover (and protect) the feathers beneath. This bird is I believe a well advanced 1cy male but could perhaps be a 2cy?

the colourful female which I yesterday assumed to be an adult. Here though we see it lacks the large white tips to the tertials so is also most likely a 1cy that has come a long way in its body moult

splitting open the berry to get to the seeds

eating frost in a flower bead

a 1cy Goshawk (hønsehauk)

an adult Goshawk

a Hawfinch (kjernebiter) coming down for a drink

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett)

the sharpest pictures were when it was looking away...

and again,,,