During the Bird Race on Saturday we had a strange black & white
duck. First seen asleep with Mallards we hoped it was a Shelduck which we
needed for our list but when it eventually showed more of itself it clearly
wasn’t. We dismissed it as a domestic duck type although when we saw it again
on Monday I began to think that a hybrid Mallard x Common Eider was more likely
and took some footage. There are not many people who share my interest in
hybrid ducks and I don’t think anyone else has spent any time on it (I also suspect
it has been around a while).
A hybrid between Mallard and Common Eider sounds an unlikely
combination and indeed it is with only one report of a possible female fromNorway (although I would say that bird is another hybrid combo) and just a few documented birds to find on the web although a male at
Seahouses, Northumberland is well known.
Based on my photos I feel confident the bird is indeed this
hybrid combo with body shape, head and bill shape matching other reported birds.
not a great photo but I am confident this is a male hybrid between Common Eider (ærfugl) and Mallard (stokkand). The jizz of the bird especially head shape and the rear end short wings are closer to Eider than Mallard and match photos on eBird. The bill pattern with a black nail also matches other birds as do the light grey tertials (visible in the video). Plumage varies greatly between hybrids but this birds plumage also looks good for a mix between the two species even though it does not match other birds. It would have been nice to document it in flight and also out of the water.
The Pallid Harrier we had was seen migrating past the
lighthouse, first flying NE and later migrating out to the SSW. It was scope
views only and wasn’t photographed but a hunting Hen Harrier was and this of
course led to some confusion and suspicion…. Two Bird Theories are always good
but as the Hen Harrier was seen again after the Pallid disappeared out to sea
then I think it was a Two Bird Fact 😇. I managed some photos
of the Hen.
Hen Harrier (myrhauk) - a 1st year male if I am not mistaken
Back home I have looked for the Taiga Beans a couple of
times. On Tuesday I found only 72 on a different field to previously (but again
one that has been used in previous years) but on Wednesday found none so
perhaps they have moved on already after only two weeks but if that is the case
then it will be 2-3 weeks earlier than normal.
I counted 72 Taiga Beans but despite the field looking flat they were difficult to count and birds could disappear so there may have been more but definitely not 129
Water levels in Svellet are still low with lots of mud and
shallow water and many thousands of ducks and geese. There were very few waders
today but two Marsh Harriers and a White-tailed Eagle may have been responsible
for that. A single juvenile Little Gull, 2 Arctic and 2 Common Terns were nice
but I always feel there should be far more terns here.
this male Kingfisher (isfugl) was a nice surprise along the Glomma River
this colour ringed Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe) would appear to have been ringed in Norway as the combination of yellow flag on left leg and red ring on right is a Norwegian thing. Finding out more details though is proving hard work though... We also saw a Greenshank with the same red and yellow ring combo but were unable to read the code
we came a bit late to the lunar eclipse and missed the blood moon
part of a flock of 19 Nutcrackers (nøttekråke) that headed out to sea
some also landed in the bushes by the lighthouse. I am unsure whether they were of the slender-billed siberian subspecies or the resident thicker billed subspecies that we have around Oslo
distant Red Kite b(rødglente) being pursued by Hooded Crows (kråke)
we had a few Stonechats (svartstrupe) and the species has bred at Lista this year.
So, what are my thoughts and observations after a long weekend in Lista for the annual bird race and festival?
First I have remembered why I did not visit again sooner after my one and only previous visit in 2017 - it is a bloody long drive from Oslo! What on paper will take just over 5 hours ended up taking closer to eight due to Friday afternoon rush traffic and roadworks.
Secondly, even though Lista might be Norway’s premier birding location when the weekend list of 126 species didn’t include either Redwing or Fieldfare then it is clear Maridalen ain’t that bad either.
Third, I haven’t quite lost the edge yet and again bagged the title of Norway’s second best birder😉 in the evening quiz.
Birds of the weekend were Pallid Harrier, Red Kite, Great White Egret and a Barred Warbler (in the hand) and a 50 minute drive gave me a Norwegian tick in the form of a long staying and blinged up Ring-billed Gull.
We had three mornings of migration watching around the lighthouse and each was different. On the first two days there were lots of tits wanting to migrate with Coal the most numerous and also good numbers of Willow. There were also Nutcrackers on the move and a flock of 19 flew high out to sea towards Blighty. Siskins, Chaffinches, Swallow and Meadow Pipits were perhaps the most numerous birds but there were also good numbers of raptors with Sparrowhawks and Kestrels particularly numerous. On our last morning the easterly wind was quite strong and there was less viz mig but there were suddenly Wheatears everywhere.
Lista Lighthouse at 0607 on Saturday
The Bird Race results. We (myself, Anders Braut Simonsen and Hans Petter Rømme) were Team Tringa and were very happy with our second place, especially as we lack local knowledge and because we were also way behind at the half way mark
Great White Egret (egretthegre)
Barred Warbler (hauksanger) that had been caught in the observatories nets and was ringed
A selfie with my 326th Norwegian species
This Ring-billed Gull (ringnebbmåke) turned up in Norway in March 2023 and received its bling shortly thereafter. It has been seen regularly (at different times of the year at 2 sites 200km apart although also goes missing for months on end and has only been reported at one other location
It looks like it has a black rubber band on its bill
My first trip to Lista was a very enjoyable affair. The
company of like minded souls, good weather and some good birds all contributed
to a great weekend although 2 x 7 hours driving in a car packed with 5 males
and lots of baggage would ideally not have been part of the experience ;-)
The Bird Fair consisted of a 9 hour bird race and then a
social gathering with a talk about feathers on owls (don’t ask) and then a
competition which would result in the rather ambitious title of Norwegian
Birding Champion being awarded. The team I was a member of (in the illustrious
company of Andreas Gullberg, Rune Zakariassen and Knut Eie) recorded 112
species which put us in joint second place which given our lack of local
knowledge was a very satisfactory result. The members of the best four (?)
teams were then allowed to compete in the competition which started with 20
mystery bird photos which were just shown for a few seconds and could consist
of more than one species. I came joint first in this part of the competition
which then went to a counting competition where four of us were briefly shown
five photos and had to estimate how many birds there were. I started very badly
when I estimated 100 birds from a photo that had 50 and where everyone else was
in the 30-50 range but came back strongly and ended up joint first after the
second phase. Two of us then went into sudden death. We both got the first two
photos right before getting the next three wrong (and both giving the same
wrong suggestion) before I didn’t have a clue on the 6th picture
(wasn’t even completely convinced it was a duck…) but my 18 year old opponent,
Benjamin Grimsby, deservedly saw it for what it was (a Long-tailed Duck) and I
had to settle for being the second best birder in Norway….
What birds did we see though? On the way down we twitched a
Little Egret and then on the day we had White-billed Diver, male Two-barred
Crossbill and Citrine Wagtail (although this was after the race had finished).
Lista is definitely a great birding locality although it was a bit strange to
see how excited the locals were with Black Woodpecker and Nutcracker which I am
used to seeing in Maridalen. Both these species turn up rarely at Lista where
they often try to migrate out to see but end up turning around (as they did
when we were there). British birders will undoubtedly wish that they didn’t
turn around and it could well be via Lista that the very few British records of
Nutcracker have originated from Lista and although Black Woodpecker hasn’t made
it to the UK maybe one day…
The lighthouse at Lista. The bird observatory uses the lighthouse buildings and rings in the lighthouse garden
The two black spots are Black Woodpeckers that thought better of flying out to see but did stop in a bush and on a pylon
juv Citrine Wagtail (sitronerle)
this young Great Spotted Woodpecker also looked like it was heading out to see before stopping in the last tree
male Two-barred Crossbill (båndkorsnebb)
this bird was particularly large billed but frequently gave the distinctive trupet call
