Beans on Stone

The tagged Taiga Bean Geese flew north from their staging grounds in Denmark on Friday afternoon. I had been expecting them to move later as the winds did not seem favourable for a northward journey but it looks like the urge to get closer to the breeding grounds trumped all practical concerns. I went to look for them on Sunday afternoon (while the rest of the country was glued to their television sets watching a strange sport called cross country skiing…😉 ). The geese were very distant on the river and I counted 61 birds but could read no collars.

I visited them again yesterday and found them on a favoured field. This time I was able to view the at 150-200m range which is good for this shy species and during the course of an hour I saw every collar that was there. As the birds were feeding very actively it took a long time before birds raised their heads and as is usual with these birds they were in an undulating field so birds were often lost from view. There were 102 in total and in addition to three birds with active GPS collars (27, 18 & 30) I saw birds 6U (a male who is paired to 30), T8 and 04 (a bird which has lost its neck collar but has a yellow ring on its left leg). This winter there were 13 ringed birds noted in Scotland so I saw 6 of them. In addition bird 7V has turned up on his own much further north in Norway and the other three birds with active GPS collars have taken the Swedish migration route. This leaves another three birds currently unaccounted for. As I usually see more than 102 birds on spring migration there will hopefully be some more birds to come.

There were very few other migrant birds to see on the river or on the fields and I noted no large flocks of Whooper Swans. Temperatures today have fallen back below zero for the whole day and tomorrow is going to bring a lot of snow so we may well see the geese moving back south as a result.

Getting my dose of Taiga Bean action (they are now counted as a separate species) would normally have left me satisfied for the day but things got a lot better when I got home. A call from Halvard H with the question: “guess what I am looking at in Maridalen?” had me rushing straight back out of the house. Halvard had found a Stonechat in the Dale. This was the first record for the patch, a bird I have not seen in Oslo before and also a bird that I (and many others) have been actively looking for this spring after a record arrival further south.

H was still looking at the bird when I rocked up 15 minutes later and it showed very well hunting for insects from vegetation along a small stream. It seemed to be finding food which seems remarkable given that there were no other insect eating birds to be seen on the fields. Stonechats are one of the very first migrants and are very hardy but they do live on the edge.

So, this was my second new Maridalen species for the year (after Tengmalm’s Owl) and spring migration hasn’t really started yet. Will 2021 be the year that keeps on giving?

Taiga Bean Geese (sædgjess) - I find that they look more distinctive (ref. Tundra) from a distance when their long necks and bills are most noticeable

T8

6U and his mate 30 with the solar powered GPS collar

they quickly disappear in the undulating fields they favour and are often very close to the tree line

this bird wth an all orange bill could easily be confused with a Greylag Goose.

some of these birds look to have stubby bills and short necks so if seen on their own could easily be identified as Tundra Beans

heading down to the river

the birds are along the still frozen river bank

the movements of the 6 tagged birds since 3 March. Two of the birds following the Swedish route left Denmark on 3 March whilst the other 4 birds left on 5 March

male Stonechat (svartstrupe) - finally on my Oslo list

this male would seem to be a 2cy male (fresh tertials but older primaries and secondaries) and of the race hibernans due to very dusky flanks and lower belly plus nearly no white on the rump

it frequently flew to the ground but what it was finding to eat was unclear to me