My posts all refer to the previous day at the moment – a good
sign as I am obviously being kept busy. I am really knackered by long trips and
survey work so had no big ambitions for yesterday (and left early for Hedmark
this morning). I ended up cycling into town to see if I could get to grips with
the Black Redstart situation. Singing males are regularly reported from two
different areas of the city but there are possibly more than single males in
each area. I have tried a few times before to find these birds but haven’t
succeeded (although did happen upon another male in another area).
Today I heard I didn’t hear any birds in the Youngstorget
area but when I got to the Myntgate area I heard and then saw a male well. He
was a very fine and striking older male and eventually flew down from his song
perch on a TV aerial into a small park. Here we was feeding and showed well on
the ground. After a while I then saw another red tail fly up but this was a
female and with food in here beak. She disappeared out of sight but must have
gone into a nest in a nearby building. My attention then got distracted by a sub
song singing acro warbler (not what you expect to find in June in the city
centre) which after a lot of help from my friends would appear to be a Reed
Warbler although I though Marsh for a while.
When I returned to the Black Reds again I found both male
and female feeding on the ground although they failed to lead me to their nest
although would frequently disappear behind buildings. The male also sang quite
regularly. He had a favourite perch on a TV aerial but did sing from other roof
tops and from low down and covered an area of at least 150 metres. I also saw
him chasing a female plumaged Black Redstart at one stage but couldn’t be
certain if it was his female (why chase her) or whether it was an intruding
bird (a 2cy male?).
The views I had were the best I can remember for this
species in Norway. I only had the superzoom with me so the still shots aren’t
as good as I would have hoped for but the video ain’t too bad.
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| the adult male Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) - quite a smart bird. The brown tinge to the flight feathers is menat to be a sign of immaturity but everything else about this bird screems adult |
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| almost looks like a different bird from this angle but I'm quite sure it is the same bird |
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| its favoured song post |
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| and the female! |
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| female again |
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