OSLO BIRDER: A SUCCESFUL wild goose trip

Friday, 24 March 2017

A SUCCESFUL wild goose trip

For what must be the first time in my loooong birding life I saw all 7 common(er) goose species on the same day and to make it even more impressive it was in Oslo & Akershus.

Getting a goose full bag was not the plan as I started the day but was a nice addition to what would have been a good day anyway. I started with one of the bird world’s best singers: Woodlark. This species is expanding in Norway presumably as a result of a warmer climate although numbers remain small. Today I had birds at Akershus only known locality with 3 singing males and a fourth individual which was presumably a female. Two males were battling out very close to each other and this is where the additional individual was so they were presumably vying for her attentions. The Woodlarks are close to Gardemoen Airport and have changed their favoured sites over the years as tree growth has made the initial location less favourable and they have moved around but now seem to be settled again.

After this I wanted to give the Taiga Beans some attention to see if any additional birds have turned up (there is one ring that was seen in Scotland this winter that I haven’t seen). The birds were split between the fields and the river and were too distant for any meaningful ring reading but I counted 128 birds which compares to the 129 last week so there is no sign of any new arrivals. On the fields there were 4 Cranes which were missing yesterday and on the river 99 Pink-footed Geese were resting.

With Canada and Greylag Geese I was now up to four species of goose.

Zak had found 4 White-fronted Geese at Årnestangen on Wednesday and this was as good an excuse as any to visit Nordre Øyeren. The geese were easy to find feeding with 220 Canadas and a few Greylag. The White-fronts consisted of an adult and 3 2cy birds. One of the 2cy had a very orange bill although it did become pinker towards the nail and another of the 2cy had a distinct orange tinge. I considered the possibility they were of the Greenland (sub)species flaviostris but there were no other plumage or structural difference from the 2 obvious albifrons. Reading up I see that albifrons can rarely have a largely orange bill so this must be what I saw but it was striking to see such a bird.

A small flock of Pink-footed Geese migrated north here and an adult White-tailed Eagle circled in the distance. The ice is starting to melt 17 Lapwings were a nice sight and a taste of the wader bonanza that will occur over the next 7 weeks.

The White-fronts were goose species number 5 and it was now I thought that I could stop off at Bygdøy on the way home for two more: Barnacle and Brent (the Østensjøvannet bird had turned up on Bygdøy this morning). These were bagged straightaway and gave time for the obligatory check of Maridalen.

The stubble fields held 7 Snow Buntings today which showed well. Incredibly after the 23 birds I had on Wednesday morning a flock of 100 birds was reported on Wednesday afternoon and also yesterday. Surely an Oslo record.

Still no flock of thrushes today with 6 Blackbirds, a Mistle Thrush and 1 Fieldfare being the total. Chaffinches are more common and I had flocks of 15 and 20. With no trickle of birds at the moment we can hope for a mass arrival which always makes for exciting birding.

Woodlark (trelerke)

4 White-fronted Geese (tundragås). The three that we see the heads of are 2cy birds due to a very limited white patch above the bill, a black nail on the bill and no black barring on the belly

three of the White-fronts with the adult in the middle plus Canada Goose and Greylag Goose

here are the heads of all four of the White-fronts. Note how the two left hand birds have a definite orange tone especially the second bird.

here we see the bird with the most orange bill in close up but note that it is pink towards the nail. Note also that teh bill is the same shapre and size as the other two birds and the plumage tones are the same. Therefore there is nothing apart from bill colour to suggest this is a flaviostris

the four White-fronts with a Greylag

the orange bill taken with the superzoom (all other pics were with the bazooka)

the adult White-front

Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås)

Brent Goose (ringgås)

Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) and a plane

distant Taiga Bean Geese (sæggås) with Cranes (trane) and Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

the Glomma River from Udenes Kirke. There are 99 Pink-footed Geese and 24 Bean Geese out there

Two Great Grey Shrikes (varsler). I have only ever seen birds this close to each other when they are paired. Even though the habitat is good the species will not breed here and these birds have presumably paired up on their way to their breeding grounds