The
Siberian Tit was seen by many on Sunday and was reported again early on Monday
morning but had vanished by the time I and others arrived a bit later in the morning
and has not been since (I gave it a good shot today) so has maybe moved off although
perhaps, and hopefully, just a short distance. Yesterday we had a really good
dump of snow that left everything white until mid-afternoon when rain and
rising temperatures melted it. I had hoped that this cold weather system coming
from the north would cause an arrival of interesting species but if they have
come then I have missed them although today on the fjord 3 Long-tailed Ducks
and 11 Velvet Scoters were probably newly in.
At least
one tristis Chiffchaff is hanging on in the same bushes at Fornebu and a
greener bird with a more normal call is also in the area. I also had a Jack
Snipe today which would have given a good photo if I had my camera out as it
flew up from my feet and flew slowly in a large arc around me before going down
in the reedbed.
In
Maridalen 2 Guillemots are still on the lake and a late Common Snipe is also
still there despite the cold snap. Highlight today was at least one Arctic
Redpoll in a flighty flock of redpolls which probably contained a lot more Arctics
as I saw a lot of pale rumps in flight but never got to see them properly to be
sure how many.
2 adult male and an adult female Long-tailed Duck (havelle) off Fornebu. It is rare that we get to see adult males here
Tuesday's snow in Maridalen
This Nutcraker (nøttekråke) in Maridalen was I think the first I have ever seen on a feeder
Siberian (tristis) Chiffchaff (gransanger) at Fornebu today. A classis looking bird that also had the right call
same bird from below
here we see that the only yellow o the bird is on the underwing coverts which is as it should be
Saturday
morning was a very relaxed affair chez family OB. Just before noon myself and
Jr Jr were sat half-dressed on the sofa doing sudoku, Jr had just got out of bed
and Mrs. OB had returned to bed (we were at a 50th birthday party on
Friday night and the effects were being felt). A message on my phone rather shook
things up though. Anders BS had found what appeared to be a Siberian Tit at
Fornebu (although with the head appearing black he was cautious due to the
possibility of it having some Willow Tit genes in it). This was sensational!
There is a tiny population of Sibe Tits that breeds in central Scandinavia and
which I have tried and failed many times to see but the species is incredibly
rare outside of its breeding areas and has never been recorded close to Oslo
before.
I was
dressed, opticked up and in the car quicker than you can say poecile cinctus and as I drove to Fornebu
I rang Anders who could report that after 5 minutes in the same tree it had
just flown down into the reedbed with a Blue Tit. I arrived on scene 10 minutes
after that and was the first there but was too late! Despite more and more
birders arriving we never found the bird again. So, I was a good twitcher in
the fact I reacted and arrived so quickly but was my usual bad twitcher in that
I didn’t see the bird. Maybe I should have done the others a favour and not
gone for it… I stayed for two hours and searched widely and did find a number
of Blue and Great Tits but heard nothing else with them except for a single tristis
Chiffchaff. Andreas Gullberg had been at Fornebu earlier in the morning and had
noted that tits including Willow and Long-tailed were on the move so maybe the
Siberian was also just passing through but with luck it will join up with some tits
in the area and be refound.
Whilst
searching for the bird it snowed and it felt very fitting that a bird of the Siberian
taiga forests arrived on the day that Oslo had its first snow of the autumn.
This is undoubtedly
the bird of the year for Oslo and Akershus and highlights how anything is
possible in birding.
I write
the above at around 14:45 after I got home (having decided to leave Fornebu to
get back to the family) and found the family had given up on me and gone out. I
was going to title the post something along the lines of “Close but no cigar”
or “Another failed twitch” but at 15:00 a message came through that the tit had
been refound (it obviously helped that I had left). 14 minutes later and I was watching
it! It was feeding low down in birch trees and was on its own apart from a
handful of admirers from the species homo
sapien. It was clearly not bothered by our presence as is often the case
with northern species and although we kept a respectful distance I was
incredibly lucky when it landed in a tree just 3 or 4 metres from me. I had to
zoom out and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to focus but reckon I got some
acceptable photos 😉
The
colour of the crown seemed to change based on the light and could at times look
quite brown and then seem almost black. My photos also often make it look darker
than it looked through the bins so it is no wonder Anders was a bit cautious
when he found it. The bird called surprisingly little (for a tit) but when it did
call it was very similar to Willow Tit (just as I remember from Finnmark) and I’m
not sure I would have reacted if I had just heard the call. I wonder if the
bird will spend the winter like the Firecrest did last year and be just as
difficult to locate.
It is fascinating
to thnk where this bird has come from and why such a sedentary species has
flown so far, and why to the warm south when it is a bird that has evolved to
live in cold inhospitable forests? And why when it first does migrate why chose
an old airport rather than the thousands of square kilometres of coniferous
forest surrounding Oslo (or are there more out there?)
Siberian Tit (lappmeis)!!!
here the contrsting brown colouts can be seen very well
the cap looks quite darker here
here the cap looks light brown in colour. In addition to the photos giving differing inmpressions of the colour it also changed in the field depending on angle and light
one Siberian / tristis Chiffchaff (gransanger) seen today
the days started with a flock on Waxwings (sidensvans) in the garden before sunrise
they were attracted by apples still haging on the trees (after a record bumper crop this year)
I had fun on the islands today despite it being cold and
relatively birdless. On Gressholmen I walked over a grassy knoll and heard a
call from the rocky shoreline beneath me. I couldn't place it and thought maybe
a Rock Pipit. I then heard the call again and thought Kingfisher before seeing
the maker in flight and it was a Common Sandpiper. But the call wasn't quite
right! I listened to a recording of Spotted Sand and then started getting very
excited. The bird had landed a few hundred metres away and I needed to get
closer. This meant running and working up a sweat.
The bird kept ahead of me but
eventually I was able to watch it from about 100m. The distance was too great
for an ID, but I fired off some photos and then played the call of Spotted
Sand. It clearly heard it but didn't react by calling or coming closer. I then
played the call of Common Sand and rather disappointingly got an immediate
response. It started calling like a Common Sand and then flew over to me
allowing good photos. This is the latest ever record in Oslo and Akershus by 13
days and therefore a significant record but still a let down from the
expectations I had built up over the preceding 5 minutes.
But the excitement was far from
over. I then heard a "spiz" call. It wasn't that close and I wondered
if I really heard it. I then heard some other shorter calls coming closer and
felt very unsure what I was hearing before having another spiz right overhead
and then a final one further away towards Nakkholmen. I never saw the bird and
it was clearly flying over but the bits fell into place - it was an OBP!! Now,
I didn't see the bird or record the call (and the call is extremely similar to
Tree Pipit), so it will never be accepted as an OBP and I will therefore report
it as a Tree/Olive-backed Pipit. OBP has never been recorded in Oslo and
Akershus before and nobody has reported unidentified Tree/OBP either but there
are a surprising number of October records of Tree Pipit in Artsobs. Looking at
these records a number are probably misidentified Meadow Pipits (based on
location) and others may well have been better reported as unidentified
Tree/OBP. 26th October is the (joint) latest date for Tree Pipit so again a
significant record either way.
I searched both Lindøya and
Nakkholmen for the pipit but with no joy and there were very few passerines to
see. The Red-necked Grebe showed really well and traces of juvenile plumage
could just be made out in the otherwise now winter plumage.
A phone call with Mrs OB who is
celebrating her birthday today was rudely interrupted when a(the) 2nd winter
Med Gull flew by and I was able to fire off a few shots before it disappeared
towards the city.
So, the day ended rather
satisfactorily! :-)
2nd winter Med Gull (svartehavsmåke) - probably the same bird as seen elsewhere
winter plumaged Red-necked Grebe (gråstrupedykker) with just a faint stripe left on the cheek showing it to be a 1cy bird
the striping is more pronounced on this side
Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe) - the latest ever record for Oslo & Akershus
these Oystercatchers (tjeld) are also late but will probably spend the winter
there were a few auks left on the fjord split evenly between Razorbills (pictured) and Guillemots
Siberian
/ tristis Chiffchaff used to be a national rarity in Norway with few accepted
records. The lack of official records was due to there being a lack of
agreement as to how to identify the (sub)species rather than any real rarity
and the national rarities committee (NSKF) decided to remove it as a
description species a few years ago. Genetic work in other countries in NW
Europe has shown the species to be a regular migrant in late autumn and a
regular over wintering bird in the UK. I am firmly in the camp that a brown
chiffchaff that gives the classic piip call is a tristis and don’t think it
needs to be anymore complicated than this. At the end of October and in November
it is my experience that tristis are the commonest type of Chiffchaff around Oslo
(not that any type is common at this time of year).
There are
still those in Norway though who view tristis as a very complicated subject
with the spectre of eastern abientinus clouding the waters and this has led to
many people not subspecifically reporting birds as they can’t be bothered with
having to explain their identification. From what I can make out from all
recent research though if it looks like a tristis and most importantly sounds
like one then it is one.
The
reason for discussing this is that today there was not just one, but a flock of
three tristis at Fornebu! All the birds looked like tristis and the only sound
that came from them was the classic piip sound but whether all three called is
another thing. I played the song and calls of tristis to them and they responded
to this with one bird wing shivering. I also played the song of normal Chiffchaff
(which is very similar to tristis) and they definitely showed an interest but
there was no wing shivering. I managed quite a few pictures although the birds
were always quite high up and I am not certain how many different birds I have taken
pictures of. The pictures show the classic brown ear coverts and lack of any
green or yellow in the plumage with the exception of a yellowy tinge at the
base of the wing which is allowed.
Siberian / tristis Chiffchaff (gransanger). It was difficult to get pictures showing the upperparts of these birds. Here though the brown plumage can be seen and the suggestion of a wing bar which one often sees with Tristis
the rusty/tobacco brown ear coverts and lack of yellow in the superciliu can be seen
That these
birds have turned up now may be because we have had our first heavy frosts of
the winter over the last two nights; heavy enough that there was ice on the
edges of Maridalsvannet. The frost has also caused some movement of ducks with
7 species on Maridalsvannet yesterday with a single flock comprising 6
Goldeneye, 1 Common Scoter, 1 Tufted Duck and 1 Teal. The other species present
were Mallard, Goosander and the long staying Long-tailed Duck. 3 Guillemots
were also still present along with 3 Whooper Swans and 2 Mute Swans represented
a real wildfowl bonanza by local standards!
A Cormorant today. This is of the subspecies sinensis which is expanding in southern Norwway and has now become fra more numerous than carbo which breeds along the coats in northern Norway
this Smew (lappfiskand) has been around a few days near Sandvika
Two Snipe (enkeltbekkasin) yesterday on the icy edge of Maridalsvannet
