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| Firecrest (rødtoppfuglekonge) |
Three days birding in Jæren including an early birders christmas dinner with 17 like minded folk was good for the body and soul.
We had lovely blue skies and with winds from the east and the first heavy frost of the autumn Kjell was expecting a number of exciting birds to be pushed out to the coast. That wasn’t the case though and we found no rare wheatears or pipits but there was a large arrival of geese with many White-fronts and a few Tunda Beans alongside Pink-feets.
Rarest passerine was a Firecrest that we found and three different Stonechat was a sure sign that they have had a good year. I saw both Long- and Short-eared Owls, Hen Harrier and Rough-legged Buzzard. On the sea we had fantastic close views of Great Northern Divers and a single Little Auk was my first of the year.
But was really strikes you with a trip to Jæren is the sheer number of birds. In addition to lots of geese the fields host large flocks of Starlings, thrushes and Lapwings and along the coast there were loads of ducks including a huge flock of 2000 Wigeon. Scanning this flock hoping to find American Wigeon revealed an incredibly smart Gadwall x Mallard hybrid. It was not a variety of this very variable hybird that I have seen pictures of before but I think the parentage must be right.
I am writing this on the plane home on my phone and I see that the pictures have been uploaded in a very random order so please forgive me.
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| Dark-belliwd Brent Goose (ringgås) |
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| Tundra Bean Geese (tundrasædgås) |
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| White-fronted Geese (tundragås) |
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| The Gadwall x Mallrd hybrid (snadderand x stokkand) showing leg colour |
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| Great Northern Divers (islom) |
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| Dunlin (myrsnipe) |
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| The hybrid duck |
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| Parrot Crossbills (furukorsnebb) |
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| Hybrid duck |
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| White-fronted and a few Greylag Geese (and possibly others) |
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| Male Stonechat (svartstrupe) |
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| The only shot I got showing some of the wing pattern of the hybrid duck |
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| Female Stonechat |
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| Great Northern Diver still mostly in summer plumage |
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| Hybrid duck |
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| Wigeon (brunnakke) |
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| A very late Northern Wheatear (steinskvett) |
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| A heavily barred adult european White-fronted Goose |
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| Little Auk (alkekonge) |
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| The Brent Goose showing its dark belly |
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| Great Grey Shrike (varsler) - apparantly rarer here than in Maridalen |
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| Short-eares Owl (jordugle) - my only sighting this year |
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| A better picture of the very smart hybrid Gadwall x Mallard |
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| A Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke) |
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| Female Stonechat |
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| Juvenile and adult Whire-fronted Geese |
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