Some Beans

The winds were from the south although by no means strong enough and an hour and a half early on at Krokstrand delivered no seabird movements with just a handful of auks flying around. Overhead though I had 3 Hawfinches (kjernebiter) and a calling Two-barred Crossbill (båndkorsnebb) which shows there are still birds around after the min invasion earlier in the autumn.

With the rest of the day at my disposal I decided to head for the area around Hemnesjøen hoping for some ducks or geese. At Hærsetersjøen there was a huge congregation of 2000 Greylag (grågås) and amongst them I had two fabalis Bean Geese (sædgås) - possibly these are from the Scottish flock? Over the years there have been regular records of fabalis from this location and it lies directly on the migration route from Denmark to the Glomma staging ground so it could well be that these birds are from the same location although none with neck collars have been reported to prove it.

Two Cranes (trane) here are getting to be a bit late and a Great Grey Shrike (varsler) was the first of three I had today – a sure sign that winter is coming. All the shrikes were at regular wintering locations and one has to wonder if it the same birds returning each year (and therefore how old can they be?) or are the locations just so attractive that it is a case of first come first served?

At Hellesjøvannet the large autumn flock of Pochard (taffeland) was greatly reduced with just 24 present and there were no Scaup (bergand) or Smew (lappfiskand) which usually turn up here in the late autumn although it is still early for these species.

I made a detour on the way home to see if the Bean Geese flock was still by the Glomma - they have yet to turn up in Scotland and people are getting nervous ;-) I didn’t locate any but I only checked one area and they could of course have been using another field although I suspect they are in Denmark or somewhere else on route to Scotland.

The two Taiga Bean Geese amongst many Greylags

Cranes

The day's 3 Great Grey Shrikes gradually came closer and closer..

more of the Greylag flock which nearly covered the whole lake. It was very surprising that the 2 Bean Geese were the only other species I could find amongst them