Bewick's Swan and Stonechat - early spring highlights

It is getting cold again and we have had snow so migration has pretty much stopped up although there are of course always some new birds turning up.

In early spring there are a handful of scarce species I always hope to find such as Red Kite, Bewick’s Swan and Stonechat. I always have them in mind and scan the skies, fence posts and Whooper Swan flocks with the hope of striking gold (or perhaps silver is more accurate). I have not found any of them so far this spring but have gone to see both Bewick’s and Stonechat at places where I have already this spring trying in vain to find just these birds.

The Bewick’s was found on the same fields as “my” Taiga Beans are amongst a now very large Whooper Swan herd. I went the next day and the undulating field, sheer number of birds (>500 Whoopers) plus the fact that birds had their heads down feeding made finding the smaller Bewick’s very hard work. I did eventually succeed and to my surprise found two birds in the flock although they were not together. The next day the Whooper herd had grown even more and it took me over an hour to locate a Bewick’s but judging by the bill pattern this looks to be a third individual….! A trip today (two days later) revealed again two birds, not together, and not including the third individual whose bill pattern is quite distinctive. The sheer difficulty in finding these Bewick’s when you know they are there has highlighted to me how perfunctory many of my previous attempts to find the species have been where I have just swept over a large flock of Whoopers a couple of times and left happy there were no Bewick’s amongst them. Note to self -must work harder in the future.

The Taiga Beans have now increased to 87 birds and I have found four ringed individuals. I do not expect any more birds to arrive and this total is the lowest ever recorded but is in line with the downward trend that has been apparent the last decade. Whether the breeding sub population is in decline or more birds are choosing to migrate via Sweden is unknown (to me).

I saw the Stonechat today, a nice male, and although not at my beloved Maridalen, or even Fornebu it was at Nordre Øyeren and represents a new species for me there (and only the third ever record at the site of which the second was a week ago..).

Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane) 1 on Tuesday

same bird

Bewick's 2 also on Tuesday

same bird

the single bird I saw on Wednesday amongst around 650 Whoopers. The pattern of black on the ridge of the bill where it meets the white feathers looks to be different to the birds the previous day

same bird

Bewick's 1 today (Friday)

Bewick's 2 today

my first Cranes (trane) of the year

a displaying male Goshawk (hønsehauk) in Maridalen

a snowy Maridalen with the first Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) of the year

Taiga Beans

ringed bird 7V

and 7Y

a meeting with a Three-toed Woodpecker in Maridalen

some of the many Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

Stonechat (svartstrupe)

In Maridalen Crossbill chicks have already hatched and seem to be thriving despite the cold. The parents only come ever 45 minutes or so and regurgitate spruce seeds into the mouths of their young.