The 23 species of wader I had yesterday is a personal record
out there and not one that has been bettered on many occasions I would think.
The vast majority of birds were adults in breeding plumage and there were a
number of high arctic waders with their distinctive red hued plumages. The
light in the evening especially on a cloudy day is OK for searching with the
scope but as always out here birds are distant and photos are appalling. I
really don’t want to find a rare peep out here as I don’t think it would be
possible to nail the ID and definitely not possible to get useful photos.
Anything rare should be nice and large! As I was conducting a wader count I had
permission to walk out in the area but even though this allowed me to come
closer to the birds the distances were still too long. None of this really
detracted from a great three hours. Highlight was an adult Red-necked
Phalarope, a bird I have been seeing a lot recently but which is a true rarity
around Oslo and seen far less than annually. This bird was feeding on the mud
alongside other waders and Teals and acting very differently to the birds I
have enjoyed on their breeding grounds. Here is the total list in approx. terms
of decreasing scarcity:
1.
Red-necked Phalarope 1
2.
Turnstone 1
3.
Sanderling 9
4.
Grey Plover 3
5.
Curlew Sandpiper 2
6.
Bar-tailed Godwit 4
7.
Spotted Redshank 2
8.
Knot 24
9.
Temminck’s Stint 14
10.
Little Stint 2 (both adults but at the two
extremes of colouration with one very orange but the other only have a weak
orange wash)
11.
Greenshank 5
12.
Little Ringed Plover 2
13.
Whimbrel 1
14.
Curlew 9
15.
Ruff 5
16.
Green Sandpiper 2
17.
Wood Sandpiper 14
18.
Common Sandpiper 3
19.
Redshank 2
20.
Oystercatcher 3
21.
Dunlin 56
22.
Ringed Plover 27
23.
Common Snipe 9
Årnestangen is recognised as a very good place for waders
but it is only when there is heaving rain storms early in the autumn that this
variety of species turns up. There was little other than the waders to see with
much smaller numbers of ducks and no evidence of passerine migration have
kicked off. Raptors out at the watchpoint were limited to 4 Ospreys although as
I drove down the hill to the car park I had a mini Falsterbo experience and in
the course of 1 minute had a family party of 4 Kestrels, a Buzzard and best of
all a ringtail harrier which unfortunately I could turn into nothing rarer than
a very worn adult female Hen Harrier but this was only my second record this
year of the species and is an early autumn record in these parts and probably a
sign of a failed breeder due to the low rodent numbers in Southern Norway.
Today I guided Kean to Fornebu and Maridalen. With the late
spring and summer there were no passerine migrants to be found but a few
migrant waders had arrived at Fornebu and a lot of the breeding birds had young
and were making a show of themselves. We had 59 species in total and a successful
mornings birding was had. A family party of Marsh Warblers were the scarcest
birds. These caused me a bit of a headache as one of the birds was making a
Blackcap like teck call which would better suit Blyth’s Reed Warbler but on
plumage all the birds seemed to be good for Marsh and checking a bit it does
seem that Marsh Warbler do sometimes give this call.
These pictures won't be winning any pictures but give a feeling for how it is at Årnestangen
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| Grey Plovers (tundralo)- 2 in full adult plumage but another in what may be a 2cy plumage. The black birds in the background are Cormorants |
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| Red-necked Phalarope (svømmesnipe) apparantly.... |
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| The Phalarope in flight with a Knot (polarsnipe) |
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| a smart adult Turnstone (steinvender) and Ringed Plover (sandlo) |
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| part of the wader flock. In the inset are Dunlin (myrsnipe), Knot and Ruff (brushane) |
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| and here are also a Little Stint and 2 Curlew Sandpipers (tundrasnipe) in addition to Dunlin, Knot and Ruff |
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| Whimbrel (småspove), juvenile Curlew (storspove), 4 Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove) and another juv Curlew. Curlews in this very young juvenile plumage are often mistaken for Whimbrels but when seen side by side the size difference is very obvious |
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| here the Whimbrel like pattern of the left hand Curlew can be seen as well as the short bills on the juveniles |
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| Sanderlings (sandløper) |
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| Female Hen Harrier and a very worn adult if I'm not mistaken |
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| juvenile Kestrel (tårnfalk) |
