Two lesser Lesser White-fronted Geese

On Saturday a pair of Lesser White-fronted Geese were found at Nordre Øyeren. I am a man who loves a wild goose chase and LWfG is an even more special species than Taiga Bean Goose with it being the rarest species in Europe (excluding Russia) and the last wild birds follow very well established migration routes from their breeding sites in the far north of Norway to wintering sites in Greece. I should therefore have been out of the door in a heartbeat, but the key word is wild and unfortunately these were never going to be from the proper wild geese (population ca.100 in Europe).

Even though no signs of captivity were seen at the time (they were swimming) it was pretty straight forward to assume they were birds from the Swedish reintroduction program, and this was confirmed the next day when both birds were seen to be wearing plastic coloured bling.

Now, these released geese are a very sore point in Norway but feted as a success story in Sweden. I have previously written a post about this in 2015 and Birdlife Norway have also summed up its view of the status of the reintroductions in this document from 2016. For an opposing viewpoint here is a link to the home page of the Swedish reintroduction project.

In Norway the Swedish birds in addition to being considered an existential risk to the remaining wild birds are considered to be non self-sustaining released and therefore should not appear on your lists (and the ringed birds are releases from captivity so are therefore regarded as category E) whereas no such qualms appear to exist in Sweden.

I am lucky enough to have seen the last remaining European wild birds in Finnmark in 2011 but have not seen any, of any status, since then so had nothing against going for a look this morning. As they hadn’t been reported for a few days I also had the (wild) goose chase experience to look forward to. In the end I easily found a distant large flock of Greylags from the car and in the scope picked out two smaller birds with white fronts. I was able to get a bit closer and get some footage but the Greylags were the most skittish flock I have ever encountered of this species so I had to content myself with views at a distance of 500 metres.

It should also be pointed out that the architect of the Swedish reintroduction program was Lambart von Essen who also stood back the release of (Taiga) Bean Geese in Dalarna which to some (a great?) extent are the likely forefathers of the «Scottish» Taiga Beans. Genetic analysis of these birds would, I think, make for an interesting study.

discovering the Lesser White-fronted Geese (dverggås) at about a kilometres range

I managed to cut the distance to 500m but the flock was surprisingly skittish and I didn't dare go any closer

the gander to the left had a slightly large white "front"

here a yellow colour ring can be seen on the right leg of the female. The video shows the colour rings better

 

4 species

documenting the geese at 500m range

my first Great White Egret (egretthegre) of the autumn. They have come later and in fewer numbers this year than the last couple of years

a flock of Pintail (stjertand)

Two ticks

This week has felt quite uneventful, but I have actually added yet another species to #Oslo2024 so am now just one precious species away from the mythical 200 and Maridalen has also bagged itself a new species which I twitched this morning.

The birding related highlight of the week was a very pleasant meeting with Five Bean Geese Gentlemen from Scotland who were on a trip to Sweden and Norway to see their geese on the staging grounds. It was my second time meeting Angus and Brian and first time meeting Carl, Billy and Rick. The same geese I had seen the previous week were all present and correct but on a rainy day and viewing from a busy road it was not exactly the most thrilling way to enjoy them.

The only picture I took of the Taiga Beans and their Scottish admirers

After Monday’s very uneventful wader searching trip to the islands it was a bit galling to see that there were a lot of birds seen the next day including my much wanted Ruff which was also present on Wednesday. I was close to going out to try to see it but found the prospect of twitching a Ruff, even in the pursuit of #Oslo2024, to be just a bit too much. I did double down on my own quest to find one though and have had my eye on a couple of damp fields in Maridalen as being possible places for the species to turn up. I walked out into one of these on Thursday and a wader flew up – not my hoped for Ruff but a new one for the year never the less – a Great Snipe! Again, a new species that I had not predicted. With this I am now on 199 for the year in Oslo and 210 must in fact be a possibility although I will then need to do drop my scruples about twitching birds like Ruff.

And the new species for Maridalen? It was perhaps the most glaring omission namely Moorhen . Found yesterday by someone not realising its significance it may have passed me by were it not for Jack alerting me last night. I didn’t exactly rush there this morning but did make my way there fairly directly once I was in action and luckily enough it was still present 😊

Maridalen Gold! Who would have thought that Gull-billed Tern would turn up before Moorhen (sivhøne) which becomes the 228th species in the valley and my 211th.

dragonflies haven't featured much this year but this Septemberlibelle (migrant hawker) was flying around close to the Moorhen. When I saw my first one in Maridalen in 2019 it was at the time the most northerly record in Norway of this recent colonist. I was expecting to find out that the species has subsequently expanded much further north but a check of records now seems to show Maridalen as still being the northern limit of its range

a few second generation Queen of Spain Fritillaries (sølvkåpe) are also on the wing now

Scrapping for crumbs

The title of this post was supposed to be a metaphor for searching for autumn waders in Oslo but thinking about it scrapping for crumbs would actually be more exciting.

Yesterday, Jack and I took the ferry and visited the islands. The wind was from the NNE, it was raining and the tide so low that the bay at Gressholmen was just exposed mud. Hordes of waders were as good as guaranteed….

Well of course that was not the case. Two voyeuristic passes of Fru. Galteskjær gave a single Common Sand on the second pass. Fru. Gressholmen’s muddy delights had NO waders but Lindøya gave us a Ringed Plover, 4 Oystercatchers and a Common Sand. There was a highlight but we only realised once I was back home in front of the PC.

When approaching Bleikøya we had seen a wader at very long range and I pointed the camera and shot and prayed. As we got closer we found first one and then two Common Sands in the same area so assumed this was what we had originally seen. Zooming in on the very grainy photos on the PC though shows we had originally «seen» a Turnstone - my third and Jack’s first in Oslo.

 

Maridalen has in fact been possibly even better for waders the last few days. On Friday a Golden Plover flew over, and today there was a Dunlin, 5 Snipe and a Common Sand. The Dunlin is only my second ever here and had found a very thin bit of mud to spankulerer on.

There are close to 600 Greylags in the valley and one carries a neck collar showing it to have been ringed in Mid Norway and to spend the winters in Holland.

With it being so wet there have been few raptors showing themselves although today I had my first Merlin of the autumn.

Greylag Goose G V8 (what font is that?)

and here her history

when I first looked at my photos I wan't sure whether this was even a bird

but these must count as record shots of a Turnstone (steinvender)

there is not much else to find amongst the Greylag Geese in Maridalen except for these 2 hybrids with Canada

and this Pink-footed Goose. A Taiga Bean or (scraping the barrel) a Bar-headed Goose would help me on my #Oslo2024 quest

some mud and a wader in Maridalen!

a 1cy Dunlin

Late summer bopping

The weather has continued to be conducive to raptor watching in Maridalen and I hoped to be able to pin down, at least roughly, where the Honey Buzzard has a nest but despite seeing and hearing him I have come no closer. However, I have found photos of the same bird showing quite how large a range he covers in his search for food. He must even at times fly very close to the nest I follow showing how different pairs share the same feeding territories. Given how widely he travels though then I find it strange that I have not knowingly seen “my” male anywhere but at/over the nest.

By looking at my pictures and other posted online I have found out that the recent male is the same as the one I saw skydancing on 26May and which has been seen by Stig over Tonsenhagen (SE of Maridalen) on 17August and yesterday and was also seen on Friday south of Sognsvann which was the same day I had two sightings in Maridalen. This bird can be individually identified by its almost perfect plumage with no missing feathers but some very specific damage to the primary tips of the left wing allow it to be recognised with certainty.

the male in Maridalen on Friday. I have circled the specific feather damage that can also be seen on the photos I have linked to plus in my photo from the last few days on this blog

the lines at the top show how I saw the bird on Friday, the red cross is where is was seen the same day and the blue cross where Stig has also seen him. In the bottom left is the scale for 1km so he moves a long way

on Friday he returned calling and I heard him from over 1km

my first juvenile also on Friday. He appeared from the same area where the male had flown to but continued flying south on his own so was I believe a migrant

this Hobby (lefrkefalk) showed well

another Hobby trying to catch something

juvenile Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk)

an Osprey (fiskeørn) at Fornebu on Friday

and one of three in Maridalen the same day. This a juvenile I believe

and an adult yesterday which flew a long way north with this fish so clearly has young on the nest still

a migrating Kestrel (tårnfalk)

Yellow Wagtail (gulerle)

my first Whooper Swan (sangsvane) in Maridalen for a while

Water Rail (vannrikse) and Moorhen (sivhøne) at Fornebu

the Water Rail trying to hide

this Moorhen has been alone since it was very small but has raised itself well