Vestfold

I reacquainted myself with birding in Vestfold today and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have avoided birding here the last few years as I have often encountered terrible traffic heading into and out of Oslo which I never encounter if I head for Østfold but today traffic was not a problem. I ended up not going for the Great Grey Owl as I knew that plenty of others were looking in vain so I stayed in a holding pattern to the north which would allow me to begin my attack run should the target be located, which it wasn’t.

I did enjoy a Hawk Owl though which hopefully will hang around for another 10 days when I will be guiding clients who have this bird high on their wish list. Otherwise I visited sites around the towns of Tønsberg and Horten which hold a few good birds in the winter month. In Tønsberg at Presterødkilen there were good numbers of ducks including two female Smew and a female Scaup. Working my way up the coast towards Horten I stopped at various places but a strong northerly wind made it difficult to pick up anything on the sea.

In Horten I saw a few Rooks which is a surprisingly difficult species in Norway. For some reason the species only breeds in about five areas in Norway with a small colony in Horten the closest to Oslo. Here they breed and feed in the town so do not seem to be too particular in their requirements so why they should be so local is a mystery. I had very close views of one bird whilst I sat in the car, in fact probably the closest views of ever had of the species, and was amazed at how colourful it was with an amazing metallic sheen to the black plumage.

Another very local bird winters time (and definitely rarer than Great Grey Owl) is Mistle Thrush with less than 10 birds this winter. They are attracted to mistletoe (hence their English name I guess?) and Horten must have the largest growth of mistletoe in Norway and annually attracts overwintering Mistle Thrushes. With so much mistletoe though it is difficult to know where to look exactly but I had a bit of luck when I parked the car in a suitable area got out and found a bird perched literally above me J

Hawk Owl! I did get (slightly) better views..

it was at the top of a very high tree though

with lots of branches in the way. Nice bird as always though

it was easy to see what had brought the owl here. Mouse tracks everywhere

Mistle Thrush (duetrost) - rarest bird of the day. Living up to its name eating mistletoe

 

Rook (kornkråke). I had this bird at too close range and in a bit too poor light to rally capture the metallic sheen in its plumage

not quite sure what it was trying to eat here

close to the car!

Two female Smew (lappfiskand) at Presterødkilen

 

impossible to know for sure but this may be an offspring of the hybrid Black Duck (that was originally accepted as a pure bird) that was resident here for many years. Note also a male Goosander in the picture

 

Return of the wing bars

It remains warm and wet but luckily a lot of the ice has now melted making things a bit safer. The light was also better today so I ventured back to Langvannet hoping to have another meeting with the Caspian Gull but I failed to see it or the hybrid from two days ago which just goes to show how much movement there is by the city’s gulls between various locations. A Russian colour ringed Herring Gull was the most interesting sighting.

Heading back into Oslo I stopped again at the Botanical Gardens. The thaw has resulted in a significant reduction in birds which presumably use the opportunity to search for food in other areas but will return to the gardens when the cold and snow returns. I gave myself an hour on the parking meter and walked the park a couple of times with frequent stops at the 2BCs favoured trees but without seeing them. With just 5 minutes to go Rune Zak turned up and we went to the trees because this gave a view towards the Plaza hotel where I had seen the Peregrine perching distantly. The Peregrine was gone but a look at the recently favoured Weymouth Pine revealed a finch sitting at the top. I struggled to see whether it was a Greenfinch or a 2BC (the crossed beak is not always so obvious in this the smallest of the Crossbill species) but the wing bars soon came into view. Eventually, and before I had to run to the car, 3 females revealed themselves but they didn’t call and were quite hard to find. Makes me wonder if they have been in this tree all the time. 4 Hawfinches, 7 Long-tailed Tits and 50 Fieldfares were the best of the rest.

one of the three female Two-barred Crossbills eve higher up than usual and also completely silent whilst I was there

with the thaw the Fieldfares were also looking for worms on the grass in addition to, as here, feeding on berries

I'm not quite sure what type of tree this is but 4 Hawfinches were feeding unobtrusively in it

both 1st winter argentatus Herring Gulls - the white ring is from Russian and the black ring from Norway although it was fitted on 18 October 32km away so we don't know where it hatched

this bird looks like it swallowed more bread than it could swallow

the Mallard on the right attracted my attention and had me wondering whether it could be an offspring of the not so pure Black Duck (left) that has been in Tønsberg for more than a decade. It could equally just have some domestic duck genes in it though. It was the generally dark colouration plus the scapulars and tertials that gave me a Black Duck vibe