OSLO BIRDER: Early trip to the mountains

the view from Venabu towards Rondane. There should be lots more snow at this time of the year

At the weekend I joined Per Christian for a trip to his cabin in the mountains of Ringebu, 3 hours drive north of Oslo. This was a repeat of a very enjoyable trip in 2022.

On the way up we stopped at Starene which is such a great place and I so wish it was closer to Oslo. There were close to 1000 Pink-footed Geese and amongst them we picked out 3 Tundra Beans. The real highlight though was when a young White-tailed Eagle flew in. It flew slowly over the geese, before almost hovering at about 30m altitude and then diving into the panicking geese. Amazingly it took one in flight and then landed with it just out of sight for us (due to a ridge in the field). For some reason it soon flew up minus the goose so presumably the goose somehow escaped the eagle talons once they were on the deck.

Ebird checklist here.

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) with a Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås)

the flooded fields at Starene with Pink-footed Geese above them

After this we visited the Taiga Beans at their second Norwegian staging post. This site is rarely visited but is in fact just as traditional as the one closer to Oslo and they also use a far more limited area here with just the same couple of fields used each year. They were mixed in with some Pink-feet and difficult to see but there were ca.80 birds so presumably the whole flock was there and I saw the two with neck collars.

After this we went owling. A stop at a Ural Owl nestbox revealed no birds but the thermal imager strongly suggested there was a bird inside. After this we then intended to see lots of Great Grey Owls as we drove forest tracks at dusk. That wasn’t to be the case though and we had precious few other birds which was also to be the case at the cabin. The cabin is at about 950 metres and as expected there was still snow but not very much and there were many bare patches in the mountains. But neither in the mountains or down in the valley could we find many birds over the weekend. No grouse of any kind, and just a few Mistle Thrushes and Chaffinches of migrants. A single Siberian Jay on the feeders at the cabin was of course much appreciated but it was a brief visit and a Golden Eagle was very distant. We also went owling in the area and had definite plans to hear Eagle Owl. The owl was not aware of our plans though but a Tengmalm’s did show well and we had a daytime Hawk Owl.

On the way back a stop at the Lågendelta in Lillehammer gave a few early migrant waterbirds with 4 Rock Pipits being the highlight.

Ebird checklist here.

the White-tailed Eagle hovering above the geese

and the stooping

it then singled out a bird

this is about a minute later when it flew up prey less

a closer up of the geese as they flew around following the eagle putting them all up

after the geese eventually settled there were quite a few Barnacles (hvitkinngjess) and three Tundra Beans (tundrasædgås) amongst the Pink-feet

same bird

and a second bird with its orange feet allowing it to be easily picked out from the Pink-feet

Taiga Bean Geese in the damp corner of a stubble field where there was rough grassland - a typical habitat

this bird was very distinctive and had me thinking 2cy Greenland White-front for a bit due to all orange bill, slight white around the bill and dark plumage