The festive season normally sees a visit to the Bro’ in law
in Tønsberg (an hours drive south of Oslo) which allows me some birding at Presterødkilen and this year was
no different. There have been quite a few White-fronted Geese with a smaller
number of Bean Geese in the area and on the journey down I just managed to see
a flock of 20 White-fronts and a single Bean Goose which were feeding on a
green field by the road into town. The White-fronts were of the European albifrons race and the Bean was a tundra
rossicus which is the expected race
for the time of year. The Bean though has been reported as a tundra fabalis
which can be understood as this is an individual with an exceptionally long
bill however the neck and head shape show it to be a rossicus. These two races can at times be very difficult to tell
apart.
Today I visited Presterødkilen and here too were some geese:
10 White-fronts and a single Bean but different birds to those I saw yesterday
although of the same races. The birds were unusually close and were perhaps in
fairly poor condition. The White-fronts contained two 1cy birds lacking white
fronts and barring on the belly and with dark bill nails (and one of these got confused with a Greylag).
There were also 1 or 2 birds with reduced white and very little barring which I
took to be 2cy birds whereas the
remaining birds were clear adults. The closeness of the flock clearly led to
difficulties in counting them as the count of White-fronts ranged from 9-11
depending on who reported them!
Presterødkilen held a number of other birds (it is always
much better here mid winter than Oslo) including 2 Smew, 3 Scaup, Bearded Tits,
Pochard, Wigeon, Common and Velvet Scoter and Rook. After I left a couple of
Kingfishers also entertained all and sundry.
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| Tundra Bean Goose (sædgås) with White-fronted Geese (tundragås) |
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| an adult White-fronted Goose with a far less obvious 1cy bird |
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| 5 White-fronts including a 1cy (second left) and an assumed 2cy (2nd right) |
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| all 11 geese with the Bean on the left |
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| the male Pochard (taffeland) with Mallards and Tufted |
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