The last three days have seen me in Jæren for a meeting of
the Norwegian Rarities Committee (NSKF). Jæren is the area south of Stavanger and
is one of, if not, the best birding area in Norway and is an area I have not
visited before. The timing of the visit was also perfect in terms of finding
rare wheatears and pipits and the south easterly winds looked perfect for
turning up something interesting.
The sheer volume of birds compared to south eastern Norway was very noticeable.
In the fields were flocks of hundreds if not thousands of Starlings (stær) and
various thrushes. There were also still Lapwings (vipe) on the fields and on
the beaches Dunlin (myrsnipe), Grey Plover (tundralo), Turnstone (steinvender),
Purple Sandpiper (fjærplytt) and Knot (polarsnipe). On and around the wetlands
were thousands of Wigeon (brunnakke) along with many other species of
waterfowl. Buzzards (musvåk) were still to be seen whilst they are long gone
back home and I also had a single Hen Harrier (myrhauk) and 3 sightings of
Peregrine (vandrefalk). A trip in away from the coast to see a Hawk Owl
(haukugle) also gave my best ever views of a Golden Eagle (kongeørn) and we also
saw a couple of White-tailed Eagles (havørn).
I was hoping to add a number of year ticks with species that are difficult to
catch up with around Oslo and also hoping that we would turn up something
really good.
We did have some good birding (alongside a lot of committee work) but the
quality was unfortunately lacking. I caught up with the long staying male Surf
Scoter (brilleand) and had a Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) but these were my
only two year ticks. A Hawk Owl was nice but wasn't of the most
cooperative variety, a Yellow Wagtail (gulerle) and a Barred Warbler
(hauksanger) were both late birds but had also been around a while and amongst
a flock of White Wagtails (linerle) we had a classic Pied (svartryggerle). Amongst
the waterbirds a couple of White-fronted Geese (tundragås), 5 Bean Geese
(sædgås) and four Smew (lappfiskand) were the highlights. A Great Grey
Shrike (varsler) was a good local bird but one that is far more numerous in the
east.
We missed out on the influx of Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit)which continues and
which were noted by others as flyovers and there were no wheatears of any
description and no exciting pipits of larks. We did have around 400 Waxwings
(sidensvans) migrating south and a good variety of passerines even if none were
rare.
There was one good bird found by our group but unfortunately as we had split
into two groups and covered different areas I didn't get to see it: an adult
Yellow-legged Gull (gulbeinmåke).
In total though I had 98 species in three days which is way more than I could
hope for in my usual tracts.
I only took my old 70-300mm lens with me as I wasn't expecting a wealth of
photo opps. Despite this I managed to
take some half decent pictures of:
|
Sub adult (probably 5th cy) Golden Eagle (kongeørn) taking off |
|
The immaturity is easier to see from above |
|
Hawk Owl (haukugle) phone scoped |
|
This Long-tailed Duck (havelle) was on a very small pond behind a beach |
|
Kjell Mjølsnes and Long-tailed Duck |
|
Adult male Surf Scoter (brilleand) |
|
a late Yellow Wagtail (gulerle). The plumage is interesting but I haven't worked out yet what subspecies or even age/sex it is |
|
Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) |
|
1 cy Barred Warbler (hauksanger) |
NOW I share your feelings about Jæren, I just added Pine Grosbeak to my garden list...
ReplyDeleteLucky you - my quest to take the prefect Grosbeak picture today failed miserably. Not even the mighty Maridalen could deliver!!
ReplyDeleteI was there (Reve) last Sunday and finally saw my Long-tailed Duck! And a (grey) seal snooping on some Common Eider; will bring a scope next time around!
ReplyDelete