Interesting Greylag

In recent years a large flock of Greylag Geese has used Maridalen in the autumn, feeding on stubble fields and resting on the lake. I have always assumed that these are local birds that congregate here but a bird with a neck collar today showed that isn’t the case or at least not for all of them. The bird was ringed on 7 July 2017 in the north of Norway and has since been seen in the Netherlands and Spain as well as other sightings in Norway. So, this is a very exciting record especially as I never notice any obvious arrival of Greylag Geese from the north in the autumn.

The flock also contains 3 hybrid geese. They are large birds and Canada x Greylag is the obvious parentage but they have dark breasts like a Barnacle and there is something about their look suggesting a farmyard goose.

A trip to Østensjøvannet today was productive with a grand total of 7 Shoveler, the female Gadwall, the returning Wigeon x Mallard hybrid and best of all a male Pochard which is a rare Oslo species and one that is still to be seen in Maridalen.

Greylag Goose UGV (and not GVU which I first reported it as and which was a goose that was last seen in 2004...)

www.geese.org is the place to report most neck collared geese and for your efforts you get a pdf with all the sightings as well as a map

theese hybrid geese are a bit confusing as they have dark breasts and a generally very dark plumage

here I think there is a farmyard goose jizz to the bird. Note also the white on the back of the neck of the right hand bird

male Pochard (taffeland)

and with one of the Shovelers (skjeand)

Wigeon (brunnakke), Gadwall (snadderand) and 2 Shovelers

The female Gadwall

the returning Wigeon x Mallard hybrid

one of two Black-throated Divers (storlom) still on Maridalsvannet. This one is now moulting into winter plumage

a Common Buzzard (musvåk) and Goshawk (hønsehauk) in the skies over Maridalen. I am still waiting for a Rough-legged Buzzard this autumn

Great Tit (kjøttmeis) helping herself to sunflower seeds

a Reed Bunting (sivspurv)

Jack not allowed out to play

After my sighting of the Jack Snipe at Fornebu on Sunday afternoon I returned on Monday hoping to repeat the experience and hopefully record it digitally better than had the day before. I made sure all batteries, including the spare, were fully charged and had high hopes. Scanning the edge of the reedbed on a rising tide revealed initially only a single Common Snipe but soon I could see there were other birds further in. They took a long time to reveal themselves properly but in the end there were 6 Common Snipe although in the initial glimpses deep within the reeds I had (very) tentatively identified Jack Snipe, Spotted Crake and Water Rail….

Even if Jack was not allowed out to play there was a very good selection of other waders with 3 Black-tailed Godwits, 2 Grey Plover and 2 Greenshank showing well. A male Goshawk flew casually over at one point with a few Crows loudly following it. After having passed over the waders (which surprisingly) hadn’t flown off it then suddenly flipped over and dived down. A Greenshank narrowly avoided its talons and all the waders took flight whilst the hawk flew into some trees to consider its next move.

Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove) - all three birds are juveniles of the icelandic subspecies

hiding a Greenshank (gluttsnipe)

juvenile Grey Plover (tundralo)

a juvenile Common Gull (fiskemåke) that momentarily thought a toothbrush might be food

Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

the Goshawk (hønsehauk) - a male due to relatively small size - flying slowly over and looking down

here it suddenly flips over and dives

a Greenshank avoided its talons

as did the Blackwits

the mixture of brown feathers shows the bird to be moulting out of juvenile plumage and is a 2cy

on the fjord there were hundreds of gulls and Cormorants in a feeding frenzy. There were clearly lots of small fish and I thought maybe I would see something larger that was driving them to the surface but I didn't. Neither did I see any rarer gulls, terns or skuas in the flock

Greenshank

juvenile Grey Plovers can look a lot like Golden Plovers (heilo) but the black armpits are diagnostic if seen

zooming out

rarest bird of the day was this Coot (sothøne) which was my first ever Fornebu record

Bob & Jack

Since my last update I have been out a few times including with Jules “Natural Born Birder” Bell and seen some good birds but haven’t found the time for photo editing or sitting in front of the PC.

A couple of trips to Nordre Øyeren revealed fewer waders than previously with raising water levels and the progression of autumn causing this. Two Black-tailed Godwits were all that remained of the mega flock (everything is relative). Great Egrets were still showing as were White-tailed Eagles and Marsh Harriers. When I was with Jules we also had a close Kingfisher although the camera was in the car and a flyover Stock Dover proved to be my first ever record at Nordre Øyeren. Most numerous bird was Barnacle Goose with at least 1500 birds present although I could find nothing more exciting amongst them. One always hopes to find a Red-breasted Goose amongst these birds as in a Norwegian context these are the perfect carrier species for the bird to be accepted as wild.

A trip to Fornebu today was enlivened greatly by a bobbing Jack Snipe. It was distant but allowed itself to be admired for a long time in the scope.

The range was close to 150m and this first video is take  with the 600mm bazooka and then 10x digital zoom on the camera.

This second video is taken with the iphone through the scope when I was closer - perhaps 100m from the bird (the battery in the camera was empty…)

And here is digiscoped photo of the Jack Snipe

Great (White) Egret (egretthegre)

two juvenile Marsh Harriers (sivhauk)

a juvenile Peregrine (vandrefalk) having its tail nipped by a Crow

this Raven (ravn) has a mouthful of road kill badger

Stock Dove (skogdue)

a late Wheatear (steinskvett)

some of the 1500 Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngjess) in Snekkervika

Ducks

On Monday, I was able to squeeze in a trip to Nordre Øyeren and it was very productive! Three different adult White-tailed Eagles feels like a record, 4 Great Egrets feeding together, still the 28 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Marsh Harriers, Hen Harrier, Jack Snipe and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker joined hundreds ducks and geese to give both quality and quantity.

The Egrets were interestingly following a flock of about 30 Black-headed Gulls that were finding something to eat in shallow water and were moving around a lot.

 A trip to Maridalen yesterday revealed the first Great Grey Shrike of the autumn which was a promising a sign and hopefully this or another bird will stay for the winter.

A quick trip to Østensjøvannet revealed both Shoveler and Gadwall which also showed very well which pleased my inner togger.

Shoveler (skjeand) at Østensjøvannet

lack of blue on forewing plus dark eye makes this a young female

nearly..

look at that bill

Gadwall (snadderand) with Mallard (stokkand)

this bird must be a juvenile and I would assume a female

a female Mallard (stokkand) that looks like a  Gadwall..

first GG Shrike (varlser) of the autumn in Maridalen

a Barnacle Goose (hvitkinngås) at Østensjøvannet

and a few hundred at Nordre Øyeren

first a single Great (White) Egret and then..

four of them

here you can also see the Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) flock that the th egrets were following around.

a Hen Harrier (myrhauk) flying in front of the egrets and gulls

the Hen Harrier then landed in a tree which is behaviour I have not previously noted. The bird was very small and is a 1cy male

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett)