The sightings and occasional thoughts of an English birder in Oslo
Friday, 14 March 2025
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.
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