To tick or not to tick, that is the question

In my previous post I wrote about my unsuccesful attempt to see a Pallid Swift on Friday whilst stood at Fornebu and the bird was at Nesoddtangen a mere 3.5km away over the fjord. I did not see the bird, but saw the birders who has seen it, and therefore did not need to consider the question as to whether I could add the bird to my Norwegian list which I was actually quite happy about.

On Saturday morning though as I ate breakfast a message came through that the bird was back at the same spot where it had been seen the day before. Even though Nesoddtangen is only 12km from my kitchen table as the swift flies it is a 53km drive which with windy roads would take at least 55 minutes. Another option is to take the ferry from downtown Oslo which if you time everything perfectly would be a quicker option but can easily take even longer door to door if you have to wait for the ferry. As I had committed to take Jr Jr out driving I decided that a trip to Nesoddtangen was off the cards but how about a repeat of Friday’s attempt from Fornebu which is only a 10 minute drive away? It was worth a try.

 After a bit of searching which didn’t reveal the bird I suddenly picked out two birders who by the synchronised movements of their cameras were watching the bird flying low amongst some houses and every now again I could clearly see a dark small bird zooming past a white house! I had clearly seen the bird but could I really say I knew what I was watching and tick it? I decided to see if I could digitally document my observation and yes it is possible to document a one pixel wide dot at 3.5km range but the documentation does not help in convincing anyone that it is really a Pallid Swift or even a swift for that matter.

It was nice to look at the pictures that were taken by thepeople I could see watching the dark dot and also some super pictures taken later in the day but they were documenting a level of detail that I had not seen.

I hoped that I could avoid making a decision by taking the ferry over to Nesoddtangen on Sunday morning and joined a few other birders who were also late to the party but the bird had done a bunk (or perhaps perished overnight).

So what to do? I had undoubtedly seen the bird but were the views “tickable”? The temptation to add the bird to my Norwegian and Akershus list was very high (I have seen the bird further south in Europe so it is not a lifer) but I have previously not been backward in expressing my views when others have “ticked” birds based on equally bad views and as I seem to be so concerned with ethics in birding then of course I knew (not so) deep down that I could not add the bird to my official lists no matter how much I wanted to and how easy it would have been to do so.

I’ll have to find one of my own some time although as there have only been about 40 observations in Norway it ain’t an easy species to find.

This still from the video below shows all of the necessary field characters to allow one to safely NOT add the species to your Norwegian list. The bird is so easy to see that the red ring I have added is hardly needed..... Note the two birders who seemed to be having great views and were much easier to see at 3.5km range 

Aker Brygge at 0809 on a chilly Sunday morning as I made my way to the Nesoddtangen ferry

a new view for me as I look from Nesoddtangen towards Oslo. I have looked the opposite way countless times