1 day to go

With only 1 day to go until Værøy I am very excited but those who are already on the island appear to be wishing they could go home especially Kjell who has been there since Friday. Birding wise it has been absolutely pants so far. The highest day count of Yellow-browed Warblers has been a paltry 3 birds and the rarest bird has been a Carrion Crow!! But I have faith and let’s face it Kjell isn’t exactly an observant birder - don’t allow yourself to be fooled by the face he leads the Norway self-found league ;-)

My birding today was limited to a quick trip to Fornebu where the big surprise was a Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler in the reedbed. In addition to being a bit late this is actually my first Sedge Warbler at Fornebu (following my first for Oslo earlier in the year).

In Maridalen the Whooper Swan family have made their maiden flight and were first on the lake before continuing their flying lessons with a tour around the valley. I so wish I had seen them making their first flight as I really wonder how risky it is with them having to take off from land and gain height quickly to avoid trees.

I didn't manage a photo of the Sedge Warbler (sivsanger) but here is the Reed Warbler (rørsanger)

this juv Spotted Redshank (sotsnipe) was also at Fornebu

autumnal Tree Sparrow (pilfink)

the Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family on Maridalsvannet where there was lots of wing flapping and running on water

flying lessons

Oslo islands

With just 2 DAYS TO GO UNTIL VÆRØY 2017 begins I thought I would get some practice for island birding in today with a trip to Oslo’s own rarity (un)filled islands. I took the public boat and had an hour each on Gressholmen, Lindøya and Nakholmen.

Passerine wise I guess I have vague hopes of one finding something along the lines of a Yellow-browed Warbler, Richard’s Pipit or Little Bunting out here one autumn but more realistically I can hope to see some waders. My Oslo list still lacks the likes of Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Turnstone and Grey Plover and it these islands that offer the best chance of encountering these species (which are far less than annual).

Today’s trip did not deliver any of the sought after rare passerines but a Wheatear and a few Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were enough to keep me looking for more. Waders were not exactly numerous either but a juvenile Knot showed well (it was only last year I added this species to my Oslo list) and three flyover Ruff were only my fourth Oslo record. But surprisingly there were no other waders what so ever.

A couple of seals were hauled up and one showed well. These were Common/Harbour Seals and both this species and Grey Seal seems to be becoming far commoner in the Oslo Fjord.

Knot (polarsnipe) a rare species in Oslo 

overflying Ruff (brushane)

a resting Seal (steinkobbe)

and another Seal. This one looks to be a young animal

over 130 Cormorants (storskarv) were resting on Galteskjær but I didnæt have a shag today - not so far anyway...;-)

my first auk of any kind in Oslo this year - a Guillemot (lomvi)

And some more videos

I found this post in drafts and had obviously intended to post it some time during the summer.....

And here is the second instalment:

Woodpecker guiding

Yesterday morning I was guiding Paul from Oxford and woodpeckers were high on the list of desired species. These are never easy to find and out of the breeding season are especially difficult as I cannot just visit a nest. I considered that Great Spotted, Green, Black and Lesser Spotted would be possible and succeeded in finding three of these. The lack of Green was hardly a loss for an Englishman and Black and Lesser Spotted were definitely good birds. The Black flew low over our heads and then showed in a tree whilst the Lesser Spotted called a lot before finally giving itself up and showing well. Result!

Bird of the day was a Great Grey Shrike which Paul found hovering over a reedbed at Fornebu hunting Blue Tits!

I can also start my countdown to my annual autumn Værøy trip – 4 DAYS TO GO J

As usual when guiding I had my camera in my bag and was not focused on pictures but did manage to record some of the highlights

Great Grey Shrike (varlser)

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) doing an impression of a hummingbird

a late(ish) Greenshank (gluttsnipe).

Water Rail

Even though I did not witness a large raptor movement yesterday there were birds on the move further south in Østfold close to the border with Sweden. Today’s weather was raptor friendly with sun, blue skies, a light northerly wind and a few nice fluffy clouds. I therefore thought it would be worth a trip to the Hellesjøvannet area. There were lots of Common Buzzards in evidence today, mostly perched feeding birds but also a few thermalling although none gave any real sign of being on migration. A single juvenile Honey Buzzard and a couple of Rough-legged Buzzards were migrating though and seeing all three buzzards in a day is I am sure a first for me. Despite this though it was far from a big day and the only other raptors I had were 3 Sparrowhawks and a single Kestrel.

Hellesjøvannet did give me some quality birding though. I had found a good sitting position to scan for raptors and from the nearby reedbed I could hear calling Water Rails (were at last 4 birds and probably a family). The edge of the reedbed went over into grassy vegetation and was bathed in sun and at least one of the rails liked this and showed really well (for a Water Rail that is). I fired off hundreds of photos but amazingly enough not a single one shows the whole bird unimpeded by either vegetation or shadows. Nice bird though.

I finished the day looking for the Taiga Beans. One of the tagged birds which had gone radio silent for a few weeks suddenly transmitted on the 13^th from the breeding areas. It sent many plots that day and then went silent again before phoning home last night to say it was on the Glomma in Akershus. I wanted to find out how many birds were now on site and hopefully read some new collars. I found the birds on the river and counted 136 birds but distance was too great for any collars to be read. 136 is a lower autumn max count than I have had before so I hope there are still birds to arrive. The birds were disturbed by a boat on the river and flew up as one flock. They subsequently split into smaller flocks though and headed in different directions which is unusual and probably a result of smaller flocks only recently having come together and not settled into a common mindset. 

spot the Water Rail (vannrikse)

Water Rails are adapted for a life in the reedbed and are very thin birds

The Beans along the bank and some Canada Geese further out on the river

after taking off they headed SWW 

before heading north

this shows roughly the route I observed the birds taking. They split into at least three groups when they reached the northernmost point with I believe one group heading north to where there was a plot at 16:00. Two other groups (of 41 and 21) headed south again before turning round and heading north (before I lost sight of them) and I expect they joined up again at the 1600 plot which is the peat bog at Flakstadmåsan. 

Whooper CranesTh

After we had been in Maridalen yesterday both Hobby and Merlin were seen and at Årnestangen in the evening a juvenile Honey Buzzard passed at close range so yesterday was definitely a good day for migrating raptors. I hoped that today would also be good but it ended up being a bit to cloudy for a big movement I think although I could also have left Maridalen too early in the day. Around four hours in Maridalen gave only 4 Sparrowhawks and a Buzzard but a flock of 29 Cranes heading east was a very pleasant sighting. This species has become noticeably commoner in the 16 years I have lived in Norway and to be honest I think there are too many now. The reason for the increase is apparently less hunting but also a lot of human feeding on wintering and migration sites which has resulted in a high (and unnatural?) survival rate. I think Cranes are fantastic birds but especially when breeding they can take a huge toll on other species whose eggs and chicks they eat.

I found the Whooper Swan family at their breeding site after having failed to see them on my last couple of visits. The young are looking large now and I hope I get to see them taking their flying lessons this year.

Cranes (trane)  

The Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family

a nicely posed Reed Bunting (sivspurv)

Juvenile Honey

Today I had an enjoyable day guiding Eric from Connecticut. After over a week of rain it was relief to have some sun and little wind. We headed first for Årnestangen where there was an immediate autumnal feeling with lots of calling Meadow Pipits, Fieldfares and geese in the air. Unfortunately, all the rain has meant an increase in water levels so there was little mud but still around 100 waders. Best were a couple of Knot and 3 Little Stint. There were around 500 Wigeon and among them a lot of Pintail – I counted 35 but better eyes later counted 90 which is a site record.

I had hoped that raptors would put on a show as the weather was finally suited for soaring. We had no harriers unfortunately but did see Sparrowhawk, Buzzard and Merlin quite close. A couple of distant soaring raptors were most likely juvenile Honey Buzzards but were just a bit too far to be certain. On the passerine side we had Wheatear, Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and lots of Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits.

We moved on to Maridalen where good numbers of Swallows and a few House Martins were in the air. They started alarm calling and a search for a raptor revealed a clear Honey Buzzard (although this was doubtfully the cause of their alarm). It proceeded to fly right over our heads and was a juvenile in one of those confusing Common Buzzard like plumages. There are very few published photos of juvenile Honey Buzzards from Norway and one reason for this may be that they are passed off as Common Buzzards. The Swallows alarm called on two more occasions and we found a Sparrowhawk and Kestrel sparring in the air on the first and a close male Sparrowhawk on the second. We had two other Sparrowhawks and a Common Buzzard in the valley so today was probably a good day for raptor migration if one had spent time sky gazing.

The best passerine was a young Red-backed Shrike and we also had a Whinchat and a few Nutcrackers. On the lake 4 adult Black-throated Divers showed well.

juvenile Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk)

juvenile Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

male Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk)

a black Adder

Two young Adders 

Black-throated Divers (storlom)