Yesterday was a marvellous day! It was so sunny
that it felt warm, birds sang, I was taken out for (a birding) lunch and guided
in the afternoon.
The lunch gave me views of a hunting Peregrine in
town, on the way to guiding I enjoyed a few minutes in the sun at Huk where a
flock of newly arrived Oystercatcher were calling and one pair even mating, a
fine Purple Sandpiper fed amongst them and my first Stock Dove of the year flew
over.
I was guiding Ben from Kent via Brussels and our
initial target was the Glaucous Gull near Drammen. Unfortunately, this was not
to be found despite there being gulls attracted to the ice fishermen but whilst
searching I heard a “kik kik” call that sounded a bit off for a Great Spot
Pecker and after a bit of searching I was able to confirm my suspicion that it
was the White-backed Pecker. We were able to watch it really well as it was
extremely focused on finding a grub in the bottom of a small trunk. It would
frequently stop and put the side of its head against the tree as though to
listen before hacking away, changing position a bit, listening again and then
hacking away again. It kept this going for 10 minutes whilst we were there and
was still going when we left. The rest of the short guiding session unfortunately
did not reveal many more species which is a bit of the problem just now with all
the snow and migration not having started – but that will soon change..
male White-backed Woodpecker (hvitryggspett) feeding just over the snow
look at those claws!
pausing to have a listen - "where is that bug?"
Oystercatcher (tjeld) - a true sight and sound of spring
and a Purple Sand (fjæreplytt) was amongst them
2cy Peregrine (vandrefalk) downtown Oslo
one of the two male Wigeon (brunnakke) that has wintered in Oslo and this one has paired up with a female Mallard which could have some interesting consequences
the Wigeon in habitat along Akerselva
on Wednesday, Jules Bell and I checked out the conditions at Årnestangen. Snow, snow, more snow and ice just about sums it up
I saw the sun today! The optimist in me suggested
that that was all the White-backed Pecker had been waiting for and that it
would be drumming away. Of course, that was not to be although yet more
chippings on fresh snow (it snowed last night) showed that it is still there. I
really worked hard for it though and slogged through the snow and over frozen
rivers but despite chalking up 6km I failed. I did get excited though when I
heard woodpecker tapping. I got the camera ready and quietly walked towards the
noise and found a Black Woodpecker… normally I would be quite happy with that
but today it felt like an anti-climax.
All the walking was not in vain though as a sweep
over the fjord ice revealed the Glaucous Gull in flight. A 1km walk over the
snow covered ice and I got to within photo range of the bird. There were several
people ice fishing here and last weekend the gull was attracted to fish remains
from the fishermen. It and a few Herring Gulls were obviously hoping for some
tit bits today but received none whilst I was there although if I’d had some
food to throw at them then I’m sure I would have had the bird at point blank
range. As it was I got only half decent photos.
The continued wintery conditions are pretty annoying
when it comes to birding as I can’t wait for spring migration to start. The
upside though is that when it finally does start thawing in a few weeks (?)
then we could get quite a rush of birds and some very concentrated and exciting
birding – ever the optimist J
2cy Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) with Herring Gulls (gråmåke)
a female Black Woodpecker (svartspett)
fresh evidence of the White-back
Linnesstranda is a very reliable place for Marsh Tit (løvmeis)
Before today White-backed Woodpecker was one of three
species of regular breeder on the Norwegian mainland that I had not seen in
Norway with the other 2 being Stonechat and Leaches Petrel.
Norway
has a very important population of White-backed Pecker but these birds are all
in the west of Norway and have eluded me the couple of times I have searched
for them in prime habitat. I have however seen the species before in the
Pyrenees where it is supposed to be very hard to find.
Until the
1970s there was a small population in south east Norway, but these died our
possibly as a result of being out-competed by Great Spotted Wood. In Sweden
there are handful of birds left which being augmented by captive bred birds but
I don't think this population has much chance.
Every now
and again irruptions of birds from much further east cross the Baltic and I
wonder whether this is the origin of the bird I saw today as Norwegian birds do
not seem prone to wandering.
The bird
I saw was just 40km from Oslo and was first seen on 6 Nov, there were then a
sighting on 3 Dec but nothing again until a week ago after which it seems to
have settled down into a small area. Despite my dislike for, and incompetence
at, twitching I decided on an early morning visit today and was so successful
that I might have to try it more often. Less than 5 minutes after parking the
car and wandering into the wood I heard tapping and quickly got onto the bird.
I was
then able to watch it for 20 minutes as it hacked noisily at trees at
varying heights. Compared to GS Wood its hacking was louder and it also seemed
to attack the trees more violently with splinters flying.
male White-backed Woodpecker (hvitryggspett) - the snow shows how close to the ground the bird was
