Værøy 2019 day 1 & 2

The first full day of Værøy of 2019 is over and I am a happy camper. Yesterday evening gave me nothing of interest and was, I think, the only first evening on Værøy when I have not had Yellow-browed Warbler. I was therefore not too optimistic about today but we awoke to a windless morning which at least made for good viewing and listening conditions. I don’t have the time or energy for a long post but Værøy’s first Rustic Bunting, Olive-backed Pipit, Yellow-browed Warbler (but only 1!), Red-throated Pipit and Pomarine Skua made for a more than OK day 😊

Rustic Bunting (vierspurv). When I heard a ticking sound a few metres away in long grass I was hoping for a rare bunting but expecting a Song Thrush. Luckily enough this time it was a rare bunting

I would have prefered to find one in the field but it was very cool to see an Olive-backed Pipit (sibirpiplerke) in the hand

adult Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke) probably a female with so much streaking on the chest

Værøy is not complete without a Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger) but there was only one for me today

colour ringed Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke) which was ringed in March this year further south in Norway

this male Merlin (dvergfalk) was hunting Dunlins

Black Tern!

Friday was Norway’s national day and a public holiday with lots of parades and dressing up in national costume. For me highlights were my first ever house Canada Geese flying over plus an also flyover Common Sandpiper.

Yesterday the promise of rain had me (and others) out early in Maridalen but the reality was just getting wet and seeing nothing interesting. Later in the day though I heard a Red-throated Pipit flying over the house whilst taking the Beast out for some airing.

Today though was the big day. More rain was forecast early in the morning and I thought that Årnestangen deserved my attentions. Goal for the day was a mountain marsh runner but at this time of the year anything can turn up. I parked the car at 6am and had a 45 minute walk in constant rain that was only enlivened by a mixed flock of waders heading north. I only managed to identify the large birds which were ca.20 Ruff but this was both a good and a bad sign. Good that there were waders but bad that they were flying off in the rain (made me think they had been scared off from the mudbank at the tip of the peninsula). When I got to the end I could initially not see a single wader which I thought confirmed my suspicions of everything having been scared off. I did see three Little Gulls though (an adult, a 2^nd summer and a 1^st summer) and 6 Arctic Terns as well as the Common Terns that breed here and when I eventually got my eye in (the rain and light were not making things easy) I realised there were waders: Whimbrel, Redshank, Ruff, Ringed Plover, Dunlin and Temminck’s Stint! I heard a Red-throated Pipit flyover and after an hour or so hit the jackpot when I suddenly saw an adult Black Tern. The first in Norway this year and only my second ever in the country. I put the news out and Anders quickly called as he was already on his way out. I lost sight of the tern but by the time Anders had walked out over half an hour later the tern was back on show. Our attention was taken by the Red-throated Pipit which flew over again with a Meadow Pipit chasing it and with a bit of enticement it landed not far away and allowed itself to be admired in fine breeding plumage!

summer plumaged Black Tern (svartterne)

there seem to be 2 generations of primary feathers  - which may allow the bird to be aged?

summer plumaged Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke). Although the species breeds in the far north of Norway it is a very scarce migrant in the south

Two Arctic Terns (rødnebbterne) 

three Little Gulls (dvergmåke) resting with 2 Arctic Terns

the adult Little Gull

and the 1st summer and 2nd summer

the first Lapwings (vipe) have hatched in Maridalen. This female had three young

male Whinchat (buskskvett)

Værøy 2016 - the end

That’s Værøy 2016 finished. I’m sitting waiting at the heliport for the prescribed 1 hour ahead of a 15 minute flight but at least there is free wifi.

So my last day continued the frustrating theme. After the flyover, heard only Little/Rustic Bunting in the morning at Nordland, a Little Bunting was found in the south in the afternoon. It was in some very high, reed like vegetation and for me only showed in flight after being flushed when it at least called. Apart from the call and small size in comparison to the Reed Buntings it was with I did see that it had reddy ear coverts.

I had a total of 8 Yellow-browed Warblers, a Jack Snipe and a Golden Eagle (as well as the White-tailed Eagles that are common here) whilst others had another 11 Yb Warblers which were ringed, the Turtle Dove was relocated, the PG Tips was also seen (after only possibly being seen yesterday), a Barred Warbler was found and a OBP/Tree Pipit was heard (and just as I am about to press the "publish" button I get a message from Kjell that he had pinned down an OBP and got pics...)

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks very promising so I hope that it doesn’t transpire I left the island a day too early.

This year for the first time there has been some concentrated ringing efforts. I have not involved myself but there have been some interesting results. A huge number of Yb Warblers have been ringed (80 and counting) with a max of 28 ringed in a day. The numbers of retraps is very low (less than 10% I think) and amongst us we have hardly noted a ringed bird in the field. This means that there is very high turnover with new birds are arriving each day (whereas before we had thought that a number of birds were hanging around) and also has us wondering what happens to all the birds after they are ringed because we were not seeing them in the field.

 

Here are some pictures of the Red-throated Pipit and I will post more pictures and some videos later.

Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke) At first it was typically skulky

but then showed really well. I was very surprised to see it was an adult with a red throat

still eminently identifiable from this view

note the broad pale mantle streaks and the heavily patterned rump

 

A deluge

Yesterday’s rain in the air turned into a full blown deluge overnight with reports of flooding from much of South-Eastern Norway. The rain continued this morning and when I eventually ventured out I chose the hide at Østensjøvannet. It may suck as a birding hide but it does at least have a roof! I thought there may be lots of hirundines to see but had just 5 Swallows – it looks like the vast majority of hirundines and Swifts have left in the last week. One good bird was a female Shoveler which showed well from the hide. I also counted a massive 390 Coots (sothøne) which would appear to be a Norwegian record. As these were only birds I could see from the hide and there are normally quite a few by the bridge in the south then must have been well over 400 on the lake today.

In the rain I saw a surprising number of passerines with the football pitches by the lake holding 21 Yellow Wagtails, 15 White Wagtails and 3 Whinchats.

I drove around Maridalen but didn't bother getting out of the car as rising flooding on the road from a usually small stream made concerned that I wouldn't get home if I stayed too long...

 

Shoveler - the dark eye shows it to be a female and I assume it to be a 1cy bird without knowing exactly how to prove it..

one really appreciates the bill when viewing it head-on

the Shoveler with Coots (sothøne), Mute Swans (knoppsvane), Wigeon (brunnakke) and Mallards (stokkand)

Three Wigeon and a 2cy Mute Swan

 

With few pictures from today I can offer a couple of my, as usual, exceptional quality videos. Taken yesterday the first shows a selection of the raptors I saw and the second the Red-throated Pipit but be warned you may feel dizzy from the experience.

 

 

Now we're talking!

What a day or more precisely morning. With rain in the air I reckoned there would be payback for the long walk out to Årnestangen and this time those birds they really did cooperate! Nothing rare but plenty of scarce and exciting birds and everything made easier by good light that meant that I could grill birds with the scope in all directions and at distance.

There were so many exciting avian encounters that it is difficult to rank them but seeing and photographing Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke) on the deck for the first time in Akershus must take the crown after my moaning about this species in my post from last week. A bird flew around the observation platform calling and as I watched and prayed it landed on the raised walkway just 30 metres away – talk about luck! I also saw and heard at least one more individual in flight

Raptors put on a great display for me with 9 species in total. There were three Marsh Harriers: an adult male that was trying to pick up a dead creature (not sure if bird or fish) out of the thick weed out in the water, an adult female that was on view almost continually and a smart and fresh juvenile that made a fly by.

A juvenile (and therefore new bird from last week) Hen Harrier was also nearly continuously on view and often together with the adult female Marsh Harrier where the size difference was extreme and had me wondering if it was something rarer but no it was “just” a Hen and most likely a small male whereas the Marsh was clearly a very large female. Watching a distant harrier in the scope and trying to ascertain key features such as number of fingers is, for me, very difficult and I do often wonder how other people can note so much detail when they write descriptions especially on birds seen for just a few seconds.

A small (male) juvenile Goshawk sat in some branches out in the water for a long period and tried the same tactic as the male Marsh Harrier to try to pull a dead something out of the pond weed but like the harrier failed.

A juvenile Merlin frequently buzzed the waders including birds as large as Golden Plover and a juvenile Peregrine sat out on the sandbanks probably digesting breakfast. Add to this distant Kestrel and Honey Buzzard plus a Common Buzzard on the approach road gave a great raptor day. No Ospreys is a clear sign of the approach of autumn.

Waterfowl didn’t disappoint either with a group of 3 Garganey, 2 Shoveler and a high count of 133 Pochards being the spice alongside hundreds of Teal, Wigeon, Mute Swans, Barnacle and Canada Geese and at least 700 Cormorant feeding in a tight flock.

Waders were not in great numbers or variety with 4 Temminck’s Stints the best of the bunch.

a photo of a Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke) in Akershus!

here the various ID features can be seen. Top left you can just make out the streaked rump, bottom left the large black malar patch and white belly, top right the long claws (eliminating Tree Pipit) and bottom right the broad pale tram lines on the back. The call helps aswell although to my ears is quite close to Tree Pipit

juvenile Hen Harrier (myrhauk). The small size and pale iris show this to be a young male

 

 

here the Hen Harrier is flying past a perched adult female Marsh Harrier and has flushed a load of Snipe

the adult female Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)

the juvenile Marsh Harrier flying over a perched juvenile Goshawk

the adult male Mrsh Harrier trying to pull a dead creature out of vegetation in the water

the juvenile Goshawk (hønsehauk) also tried to pull something from the water weed but failed

juvenile Merlin (dvergfalk)

Peregrine (vandrefalk)

Common Buzzard (musvåk)

and adult Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) - quite a day for raptors!

 

mummy, daddy and baby Crane (trane)

Ringed Plovers (sandlo) and Dunlin (myrsnipe)

the three Garganey (knekkand) although it is difficult to tell based on this picture

the Garganey again - honestly!

Golden Plover (heilo)

the Merlin flying in front of the large Pochard (taffeland) flock

can you make out the Shoveler (skjeand)?

 

   

 

On the way home I stopped at Langvannet in Lørenskog. This is where last winter’s Caspian Gull showed so well but today the rarest gull was a 2CY Lesser Black-back which is an unusual age class in Norway. There were any juvenile LB-bGs here and I wonder where they breed – inland breeders or birds from the fjord? This lake is also a regular site for tame Mandarin Ducks with hardly any other records in Akershus. Mandarin is on the Norwegian list as a Category C species due to some records (proven by ringing?) being from the feral populations that exist in the UK. However the vast majority of records, judging by behaviour, locality and timing, are of birds that have a much closer origin. The cluster of records from Langvannet strongly suggests that they are escaping from close by and we know that multiple birds are involved as one (more?) have been caught and ringed whereas the current bird is unringed. This bird has also been the source of much internet discussion as when it was discovered 3 weeks ago it was in eclipse plumage and many people refused to accept it was a drake in eclipse plumage (despite the pink bill telling otherwise). During the course of these weeks though it has worn into nearly full breeding plumage which seems to happen much faster than in Mallards.

2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull (sildemåke)

4 species of gull in juvenile plumage. Clockwise from top left: Lesser Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull (gråmåke), Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) and Common Gull (fiskemåke)

the male Mandarin