Taiga Beans - earliest ever arrival

Birding has gotten very slow this last week. My “scarce and sensitive” species that I have been monitoring on an almost daily basis seems now to have moved on with my last sighting a week ago and a few nocturnal owling trips have been surprisingly quiet. I have had two trips into forests where all manner of owls should have been possible and conditions were fantastic with no wind, no cloud and no disturbing sounds from melt water. The only thing missing was a full moon which some say encourages owls to sing but for which I can see little evidence for. A single Tengmalm’s Owl was all that we turned up and even that gave only a few hoots and didn’t break into proper song. There are extremely few other reports of singing owls (even Tawnies) so it does look like we are going to have a very poor owl breeding year in 2023 in the south of Norway (in the far north it seems much better though).

Today saw an upturn with my earliest ever encounter with the Scottish Taiga Beans. I received an email from Angus a couple of days ago informing me that tagged birds had left Denmark and were on course for Norway and a check of the maps yesterday evening showed them back on their favoured staging grounds after they had roosted in Nordre Øyeren. We have just had two days of snow so conditions were far from welcoming for them and you must wonder why they chose to come so early. They have only turned up in February once before and that was last year when they arrived on the 27^th. They have returned to Denmark before after finding there was too much ice and snow and time will tell if they choose to do the same this year.

I decided to look for them today in glorious sunny weather and found them first on the river and then on a field. The lie of the land allowed me to get very close without disturbing them and I had some of my best ever views. There were 87 Taiga Beans and 2 Pink-footed Geese. This is a low total and I expect more to turn up.

7 ringed birds was a good result. The two with functioning GPS senders (5 and 6) which were fitted on 5 Nov 2022 were present as expected and I also had GPS tagged bird 27 whose sender last transmitted on 14 Jan in Scotland so it was good to confirm he is still alive.

There were 4 birds with neck collars: V8 and V7 also received their rings in the trapping operation on 5 Nov 2022 but the other two birds were old friends. X4 was ringed on 14 Oct 2012 (with a GPS collar 07) and I saw it annually until 2017. It then must have lost its neck collar but I was able to identify it on 28 August 2022 due to it having a black ring on its left leg. Amazingly enough it was trapped again on 5 Nov 2022 and a new neck collar X4 was fitted. The last bird was 6U who is one of the original birds and was ringed on 12 Oct 2011. I have seen him every spring since then (except 2022) and most autumns.

Taiga Bean Geese in wintery conditions

6U, X4 and either 5 or 6 with GPS collar and solar cell

GPS collar 6 - I have to say this looks to be a rather large collar

27 - a now non functioning GPS collar

V8

V7

resting on the river

snow on the bills

amongst a flock of Taigas there is quite a bit of variation in bill colouration and bill and neck shape/size. On Twitter recently I have seen a number of pictures of what people are saying are a Taiga and Tundra Bean Goose together in Norfolk but for me it shows a pair of Taigas with the smaller bird just being a female Taiga.

even though they are in a stubble field they look to be eating green vegetation/roots

2 very large, long necked looking birds, similar to the one I saw on Røst

89 birds in total by my count

Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås)

both the Pink-feet are in this picture and their smaller size is very apparant

The geese on the field, picture taken with mobile

view down to the river which is ice free

here a goose with white feathering around the bill and eye, there has previously been a bird in the flock with a very orange bill and some white over the bill which has been mid identified as a White-fronted Goose. This bird could well be an offpring of that bird

Some nice pictures of colourful common birds..

I am writing this as it is raining outside turning what were already icy conditions into deadly conditions. Winters in Oslo are becoming far more variable and this type of weather which will end up leaving a layer of ice on the ground is what doesn’t suit voles and then ends up leading to a lack of food for owls and a poor breeding year for them. I am planning on an owling trip soon to the deep, dark forests and am unsure whether I will hear a single bird.

The last week has seen some OK birding and we did have a day with really nice weather when I actually managed some OK pictures too.

There has been little change in the species on offer although the first Goldeneye has returned to a tiny area of open water on Maridalsvannet – a male I assume he will breed there and is keen to assert his rights. Other sightings of note in Maridalen include the Great Grey Shrike becoming more reliable and a couple of Waxwings (scarce this winter) which have been feeding on some red berries that no other birds have touched. I witnessed for the first time foxes mating although they were on the ice in the middle of the lake so it was very long range. A couple of Moose have also given me some very close views.

At Fornebu the number of Starlings has risen to eight but there are no other new birds to speak of. The Bearded Tits are still going strong and I had at least 9 birds at the favoured site feeding at point blank range on the ground and birds are still making their presence heard in two other reedbeds so I remain confident for the chances of breeding. The male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker that has been there all winter showed incredibly well one day and was feeding too close for the camera at times

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett)

look at the shape of the bill

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

Waxwing (sidensvans)

they spent long periods just sitting still and I assume that these berries require a lot of time to be processed

Goldcrests (fuglekonge) are still very obvious at Fornebu and are often on the ground and have now started singing

Treecreepers (trekryper) are less obvious but their calls often give them away

Short-toed Treecreeper has yet to be recorded in Norway but analysis of a picture like this taken of one at a coastal site may well reveal one as they breed in southern Sweden and Denmark

Dipper (fossekal)

Parrots Crossbills (furukorsnebb) are still around and in pairs but I have seen no evidence of nesting yet

8 Starlings (stær) in a tree does not a spring make

Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

adult (female?) Goshawk

Moose

winter food is tough

the Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) seem to find lots of seeds that have dropped onto the snow

the only time I saw them up in the reeds was when they had a good old preen