Finding my own, and many, signs of spring

Temperatures on the red side of zero if only by a small handful of degrees, no night time frosts and rain mean that spring is creeping along. There might still be lots of snow and ice but there are also now snow free areas even in Maridalen and a few birds are arriving. This morning’s dog walk revealed a singing Chaffinch which brought an uncontrolled smile to my face – maybe this world, and the bits that we humans don’t control is not so bad after all 😊

I have now seen two of the S’s in Maridalen with yesterday a number of Skylarks heading south (and a couple singing) after I think having met a wall of fog to the north and two Stock Doves doing the same. Mistle Thrushes, only the Dales’s third ever Rock Pipit, Merlin, Peregrine and migrating flocks of Whooper Swans have also suddenly announced the arrival of spring. As I write this there are strong southerly winds and more rain so I would not be surprised if a number of new birds arrive today. Maybe Maridalen will also get in on the Stonechat act? There is now a pair at Fornebu and with so many birds turning up surely we will find them breeding soon.

only Maridalen's third ever Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke). Both other records were also in March and there is clearly a small overland passage of the species

it was on the exposed mud in the same field as the Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family were also finding food

Stonechat (svartstrupe) pair at Fornebu.

the male

and the female

the Whoopers

and an early Merlin (dvergfalk)

some sights and sounds from Maridalen yesterday:

Yesterday also saw me on a wild, and successful, goose chase. With no GPS trackers to help I can no longer use my phone to find the Taiga Beans but that didn’t matter as I tracked them down on two fields totalling 65 birds in total. I also had a number of early Pink-feet, two White-fronts and three Tundra Beans alongside Greylags, Canadas and hybrid between the two so it was actually a very goosy day.

The Taiga Beans were on stubble fields I have not found them on before although were in the same areas as previous years sightings and were also close to Whooper Swans and other geese whereas often they are alone. They were also relatively close to roads allowing themselves to be well watched and were surprisingly unskittish.

It was also noticeable that they were not together in a single flock. The first birds were 16 in total and were on a field close to where the birds regularly were in both spring and autumn last year and were spread out across a field with 140 Whooper Swans and Greylag, Canada and two White-fronts as you can see in this video.

After a while when they decided (for no apparent reason) to fly off and did so in groups of 4,4,5,2 and 1 with the last three groups eventually joining up and then turning around before flying back over the field and disappearing to the NE although these birds had returned later in the day and were again separate on the field as groups of 5,2 and 1. Amongst the group of 5 I saw bird V7 who has lost its neck collar but still has a colour leg ring.

V7 left leg probably with its family given how the group of 5 kept to themselves. This bird was ringed in Scotland in Nov 22 and I have seen it every spring since then but interestingly not in the autumns

Taiga Beans keeping separate and probably two family groups

another group of 4

The White-fronted Geese (tundragås). With such limited belly barring I wonder if they are 2nd winter birds

The second group of 49 birds was on a stubble field close to Udenes Church. The river here is where they roost but I have rarely seen birds on the fields here. A large flock of Whooper Swans has been here this week and maybe this attracts birds – it is very likely that I was watching very newly arrived birds. When I first saw them they were split into distinct flocks of 30 and 19 and there was in addition a small flock of Pink-feet which had a Tundra Bean amongst them. It was very interesting to see how these three small flocks were within 20m of each other but operated as distinct units. On a return visit 2 hours later though the geese were all mixed up. I was now able to find another leg ring Y7 but no collars.

a Taiga

more Taigas

and Y7 ringed on its right leg in Oct 2019 and seen by me every spring since and also in a couple of autumns

This video shows both the ringed birds:

So, 65 Taiga Beans in total with two leg rings but no collars. Hopefully there are more birds to come and the flocks will join up. It would make a lot of sense that the birds at Udenes were new in from Denmark that morning whereas the other 16 have been around a few days (I had 12 on 5.3 then 2 on 8.3 and 4 on 9.3 which may have been the flock of 16?).

 

The Tundra Bean Goose was educational to watch. When I found it amongst the Pink-feet it was clearly a Tundra due to being the same size as the Pink-feet and also the fact it was associating with them rather than the Taigas. On the return visit when all the geese were mixed together I did find it again BUT I doubt very much that I would have been brave or foolish enough to have called it as a Tundra if I had not seen it separately earlier. I have always been very conservative regarding reports of Tundras within flocks of Taigas and have dismissed other reports due to the individual variation amongst Taigas but of course it is possible for birds to get mixed up especially if Pink-feet (the more likely carrier species for Tundras) are mixed in. I had a pair of Tundras at another site amongst a large flock of Whoopers where there were also Pink-feet, Canadas and Greylags but no Taigas. The feature that was perhaps easiest to pick out the Tundra was that its head was paler than the heads of the Taigas which were noticeably darker than their necks. Whether this is a consistent (and previously described) feature is not something I am aware of.

These videos allows good comparison of the Tundra and Taigas:

Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås) and Tundra Bean - note how they are the same size

the Tundra with Taiga in the background

spot the Tundra?

these pictures could have been sharper but give an educational comparison of the two

this is probably the best with the smaller size of the Tundra apparant as well as the paler head. Bill structure is of little use but we see the shorter neck

and here with a Pink-foot

the bird on the right could very easily be mistaken for a Tundra due to short neck and stubby bill but note the darker head and I am sure it is "just" a female Taiga

and two Tundra on another field which I did not see side-by-side with other geese but look to be larger birds than the other one. Notice the pale head which is concolourous with the neck especially on the left hand

and Cranes (trane) are back although only no large flocks yet

Oslo Little Stint

On Thursday I had to drop Jr Jr off at Bygdøy so afterwards decided to see if the fjord at Huk had anything to offer. I don’t normally visit there at this time of the year unless it is blowing a gale which it wasn’t but it was blowing from the south and raining so there was always the chance of something. The rocks and skerries here attract Purple Sandpipers in winter but I have seen few other waders over the years other than Oystercatchers and those I have seen have generally stopped just briefly before continuing on their journey. Yesterday was a bit different though as first a Little Sint and then a Dunlin showed themselves and seemed quite happy searching for food in exactly the same way the Purple Sands do. The stint was only my third in Oslo and is a genuine rare species here with just 6 other records this century.

I also visited Østensjøvannet for the first time in a good while and there were worryingly few birds. Even if there was a lack of quantity then it was compensated so some extent by some quality with a male Pintail coming out of eclipse, a Shoveler, a Peregrine and most surprisingly a Common Scoter. This is a surprisingly scarce species on the lake with only 6 previous records ever and these have either been on spring passage or in late October (which matches when birds turn up on Maridalsvannet). A record in mid September is therefore unusual (and I had seen none on the fjord) and the bird was an adult female which is also an unusual record with records later in the autumn being almost exclusively 1cy birds.

 

Another unusual trip for me was a walk all the way out to the tip of Årnestangen. Water levels have kept on rising and the mud flats were gone but it was a relatively good day for raptors with 9 species noted including a hunting Hen Harrier at relatively close range.

Little Stint (dvergsnipe) with Eiders (ærfugl) - they are small!

and the Dunlin (myrsnipe)

this Herring Gull (gråmåke) made short work of a starfish

Østensjøvannets male Pintail (stjertand) coming out of eclipse. Hopefully it will hag around until it has acquired its full breeding plumage. Male Pintails that have turned up in Oslo have often, for some unknown reason, lacked the long central tail feathers that give this species its name and it looks like this bird (which could well be a returning individual) will also lack them

Shoveler (skjeand) with Tufted Duck (toppand)

adult female Common Scoter (svartand) with Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker). There was a brood of 2 less than half grown grebes which still had stipy, downy plumage and one of which was sat on a parents back. This is very late and it will be interesting to see how things go especially if we have an early cold snap

Great Grey Shrike (varsler) at Årnestangen

and a Great White Egret (egretthegre)

hunting Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

with a mouse

and a Merlin (dvergfalk)

Cranes (trane) are starting to head south now

2 Shoveler and 2 Wigeon (brunnakke) at Merkja

The Beast accompanied me to Årnestangen and I finally discovered who the viewing shutters were designed for...

Geese, geese, geese

I have been drawn back to Nordre Øyeren daily now in the hope of uncovering something rare. The numbers of geese are just enormous and you can see them either feeding on stubble fields or resting on the water at Svellet. There are at least 2000 each of Barnacles and Greylags but probably a lot more as well as 400 Canadas. Finding something scarcer amongst all these has proved tough going but I have now found a single White-fronted Goose, single Bar-headed, single Pink-footed and 3 Greylag x Canada hybrids. I have only found one bird with with a collar - a Greylag ringed in Germany in 2021 and since either close to Oslo or in Germany.

I have spent too long looking at the Canadas and have got a headache at the amount on variability amongst them with some birds definitely looking «wilder» than others but all probably within the variation of size and plumage of a feral population that probably has little genetic diversity.

 

White-fronted Goose (tundragås)

Bar-headed Goose (stripegås)

neck collared Greylag (grågås) D780 and its history below

this Canada looked very interesting from afar 

but closer up I wasn't s sure

and this one while not being so dark also looked quite different

enormous numbers

Water levels have risen a lot due to heavy rain and there is no longer mud in Svellet so waders and dabbling ducks have vanished but there are now 4 Little Gulls and also 4 «commic» Terns (I remember as a child hearing the term Commic Tern and not being able to find it in my bird book. It caused me lots of confusion for a long time until I finally plucked up the courage to ask an older birder what it was and found out it was from COMMon and ArctIC and referred to unidentified birds of the species pair. I also remember very soon after calling out “Commic Tern” and it being a white dove….). I initially thought there were 2 Common and 2 Arctic but with better views have now come to the conclusion that there are at least 3 Common and the fourth bird is also most likely a Common. It has been quite a learning experience where I relied too much on jizz and behaviour to start with.

a commic tern and 2 Little Gulls (dvergmåke)

3 f the 4 Little Gulls. All were 1cy

this 1cy tern with grey secondaries must be a Common (makrellterne)

I have had 10 species of raptor which is a good showing and my first Great Grey Shrike of the autumn.

my first Great Gre Shrike (varlser) of the autumn which I saw eating a mouse

a very distant, but very smart, male Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

Peregrine (vandrefalk) and a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk)

this immature White-tailed Eagle (havørn) flew over Svellet

and a bit later I found it on a field that had previously been covered in geese with just a few crows for company

Merlin (dvergalk)

I have also had a couple of attempts to locate the Taiga Beans but have failed. I assume they are still around as it would be record early if they have already left and I remember that in previous years the GPS tagged bird(s) have shown they have often used one particular field that is very well hidden and that I have never tried to get to as I am certain it will just result in flushing the birds – they may well be using it again.

 

I have only had a couple of quick visits to Maridalen but a perched and then hunting White-tailed Eagle was a very good sighting.

the Crane (trane) family is still feeding in Maridalen

it is very unusual to find a perched White-tailed Eagle in the Dale