OSLO BIRDER: Another Dale tick!

Birding since my last post has been pretty uneventful until today when I had that most notable of birding events – a local patch tick. The bird in question was a White-fronted Goose and this was the second record in the Dale. I did not find the bird but my twitching skills were for once in order and I had seen the bird less than 15 minutes after getting the message. This is a species that I always scan the flocks of Greylags and Pink-feet for and was one I felt confident would fall sooner rather than later. With this bird I have now had three new species in Maridalen already this year and am now on 199 species – maybe the magical 200 will come sooner than I expected. A Rough-legged Buzzard was also a nice to see although was soon chased off by a Hooded Crow.

A much anticipated owling trip on Saturday night along the most owled forest track in this part of Norway was in what are considered by many to be perfect conditions: full moon, stary sky and no wind. They were however far from perfect with just two Tengmalm’s Owls for my troubles. Rain earlier in the day may have been the factor that affected the owls (lots more Tengmalm’s had been heard earlier in the month) but it may also be that eggs have been laid and singing is no longer necessary although given how long I was out I would have expected to hear more. On the way there I stopped to look at the Taiga Beans. I had only a pair feeding on one of the fields but on the river there were a lot of geese. Unfortunately distance and light meant that I could not make out how many were Beans and how many were Pink-feet but it did look like there were considerably more than 100 Taiga Beans which would mean additional arrivals since I last counted them.

I did see Cranes which were new for the year and I have also chalked up Redwing, Woodcock, Shelduck, Smew and Ringed Plover so have now accelerated to 108 species.