A trip to Tromsø and rain

Well, I can no longer complain about the weather being too nice as it is raining and blowing and if, maybe if, I were to venture outside there could be a whole tree of wing bars waiting for me.

I escaped Oslo’s weather on Tuesday and Wednesday with an impromptu visit to Tromsø to give Jr some much needed TLC. I arrived to 15cm of fresh snow and blue skies. There is only one month left of sunshine before the sun doesn’t rise for two whole months and even now the sun was always low in the sky. There are still lots of rowan berries in Tromsø which is in stark contrast to Oslo where a very poor crop was stripped from the trees by thrushes weeks ago. There were few birds in Tromsø though. I had a good walk when Jr was at lectures and 60 odd Waxwings was the absolute highlight and also the commonest passerine (just 30 or so Fieldfares). On the fjord there were flocks of Eider that were too distant for me to grill and also Long-tailed Ducks. I was surprised to find a Curlew but otherwise the muddy bay where I had spent much time in September was a bird free zone.

a Waxwing (sidensvans) in Tromsø

A trip to Fornebu yesterday did reveal some new and slightly exciting birds. A Wheatear at the same spot as the Turtle Dove had been had, of course, to be looked at properly but was just of the common variety. It is truly late record though. A tern then caused me quite a headache. A tern close to Oslo at the end of October has to be an Arctic but with my tern problems from September still troubling me and the knowledge that a Common Tern was seen (and photographed) in the same spot less than 2 weeks ago I was determined to make sure I got the ID of this one right. In flight from a distance it did indeed look like an Arctic but I managed to get so close to the bird that I think I lost the bigger picture. I spent a long time with it perched just metres from me and also fishing close by (it was snatching small fish from the water surface) and ended up concluding that it was a 1^st winter Common Tern although the lack of a clear dark bar on the secondaries was at odds with this but I explained that to myself by it being an advanced bird that had somehow moulted these to adult feathers already (something that they don’t do). Later on someone else reported the bird as an Arctic and I quickly replied that I reckoned it was a Common…. This quickly prompted me to look at my pictures on the PC (instead of on the back of the camera) and I couldn’t help but agree that it must be an Arctic although I still find it to be a far from classic bird but I think that may be because I am not used to seeing them so close at this time of the year. The more distant flight photos are much easier to ID from.

 

The hope of a wing bar or two survives with a visit to Værøy next week now on the cards. This late in the autumn there may well be no Yellow-browed Warblers but hopefully far greater rarities from even further east. Or most likely absolutely sweet FA.

a late Wheatear (steinskvett)

it my have been difficult for me to ID this young Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) but it was not difficult to get close to it

if I had just had this picture from when I first saw it distantly then I think I would have never thought twice about it being a 1cy Arctic

getting a bit closer it is still fairly straightforward

with one of a number of fish it snatched from the waters surface

it was pictures like this that confused me as I expected the secondaries to be pure white but the secondaries are actually mostly hidden under the greater coverts

I also got confused by that I thought were too long legs and too much red on the bill

no real doubt what it is from this picture either

Jack Snipe are still around and the "hunt" for them remains exciting even if I use the thermal

spot Jack?

using the flash on a dull autumn day brings our far more colours

In Maridalen there are now 11 Whooper Swans with the lone subadult now seemingly having attracted a mate and today a lone Pink-footed Goose had joined them

Whooper Swans (sangsvane) the family of 4 which I am sure are the valleys long term birds

2 of the same birds

the additional 7 birds  a family of 5 and the two birds below

the bird on the right which is not fully adult turned up first alone and has now been joined by this other bird

a Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås). There has been a widespread influx of out of course Taiga Bean Geese in Norway and beyond (including to Ireland for the first time in over a decade) so when I first saw there was a goose with the swans I really hoped that is what it would be

the field that the swans use has also been very popular with Jays (nøtteskrike) with up to 20 feeding there