Hybrid blues

Feeling some post-Værøy blues I visited Årnestangen today and saw hundreds if not thousands of birds which was a bit of a contrast to Værøy’s meagre pickings. There were many, many thrushes, mostly Fieldfares feeding on rowan berries but also Yellow Wagtail and Chiffchaff. The water level is high with no mud banks left and some of the fields flooded and the wildfowl are concentrated on Fautøya. Here among hundreds of Mallard, Wigeon and Teal were three Shoveler and two Pintail. Amongst a small flock of Canada Geese was a single Greylag Goose and 5 juvenile hybrids between the two species.

I had my first migrating flock of Pink-footed Geese for the autumn with a flock of 200 heading south of which a group of 20 broke off and flew around the area seemingly looking for somewhere to feed. When I first heard the flock I thought they were Bean Geese and realised that I cannot separate them on call. I also find it to be far from straightforward to separate these two species in flight if one doesn't see the overwing and it is clear from the number of records of migrating Bean Geese from certain areas of the country that others have similar difficulties. Bean Goose is a truly scarce species in Norway which we now know to have very traditional migration routes yet the number of records from some areas would have you believe it to be much more regular…..

I had pretty good views of 2 Hen Harriers both of which were 1cy birds but taking good photos of them remains a challenge for me. Driving up to the main road a spotted what looked like a Carrion Crow but suspected it would turn out to be the hybrid that has been reported a few times here recently. At some range in the bins it looked very black and pure and it was only by studying the photos I managed to take that evidence that it is a hybrid were evident. Compared to the two hybrids I have seen before this bird was much, much blacker and is I suspect a second or third generation hybrid with just a single Hooded Crow ancestor. It may also be a pure Carrion Crow that has a few dark grey feathers although a quick google search failed to find any pictures of similar birds. It also raises the question (as the Black Duck hybrid and various gulls do) as to where one draws the line between a hybrid and what can be called a pure bird.

five Canada x Greylag Goose hybrids

Carrion Crow x Hooded Crow hybrid but a bird at the Carrion Crow end of the hybrid spectrum

no grey to see in this photo though

this picture isa bit to grainy to make much of but there appear to be a few grey feathers amongst the black. Then again though it looks like there is grey on the upper breast where both species are black so maybe the grey feathers are not because of a hybrid influence?

1cy Hen Harrier - looks to have a dark eye and is therefore a female

same bird

2 juvenile/1st winter Lesser Black-backed Gulls showing a bit of the variation in this species

here when the pale grey upperwing I visible then Pink-footed Geese are easy but depending on light conditions and the height the geese are flying then geese can be difficult

 

The Famous Oslo Grouse

One of the great things with birding is that it never fails to surprise. On Facebook yesterday there was a fascinating report of a Grouse (rype) seen in a small wood within urban Oslo. I didn’t really expect this bird to be “twitchable” so made no plans to go looking for it today. Instead I headed out east again where Stig Helge Brasnes could report that the spring flood had started at Kjelle and the first geese and swans were thee. He had also seen some crossbills nearby recently which could well have been Parrot (furukorsnebb) and I had a hope of getting some photos. Weather-wise the temperatures are holding just above zero so the thaw is continuing but with a fresh southerly wind and rain in the air it was quite unpleasant being out. There were only small numbers of geese and swans with 30 Whoopers (sangsvane), 55 Canada Geese and 5 Greylags (grågås) but they should build up to many hundreds over the next couple of weeks. My first two Lapwings (vipe )of the year were as hoped for as was a heard only Skylark (sanglerke) and a Great Grey Shrike (varsler). I searched for crossbills but found none although it was far from ideal conditions for searching for forest birds.

With good time on my hands I headed home wondering what else I should do. I stopped at Langtjernet on the chance that the Caspian Gull may still be around but there were very few gulls. However the hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow that has been seen a few times was on the ice and looking pretty ugly.

Still with a bag full of time to play with I realised that it would only be a small detour on the way home to the area where the grouse was seen yesterday. I wasn’t going to search for a needle though so found the phone number of the lady who had reported the bird and rang her. She was most pleasant and helpful and described exactly where she had seen the bird yesterday which was not deep in the wood but right on its edge by a road. I drove there, got out of the car and as Garner would say BOOM! There was a fluffy white bundle of feathers just metres away from me!! I must admit I began to think it was a stuffed bird and I was the victim of an early 1 April prank but it moved! I watched it, filmed it and photographed for around an hour and saw it feeding, shitting, ducking when a falcon-like Pigeon flew over and generally looking healthy. The fact that it was sat in exactly the same place as yesterday, in a city, by a building site though does suggest that this bird is a beer short of a six-pack, a spanner short of a tool box etc etc. But what a bird, my best views ever of the species and something I never, ever, thought would end up on my Oslo list. Edit: this bird has turned out to be a Ptarmigan and not a Willow Grouse - unbelievable!

I even got the tripod out and made an effort with regards to my photos and video.

 

 

 

 

and some of today's other birds which were also quite noteworthy but got rather eclipsed by the now Famous Grouse.

 

a hybrid Carrion Crow (svartkråke) x Hooded Crow (kråke)

Great Grey Shrike in still wintery conditions

I think it was difficult for this Lapwing to find much food on the frozen field

both the Lapwings - the long head plumes show them both to be males

 

 

Two and a Half Corvids

The last couple of days have not seen too much in the way of successful birding. Yesterday was an isolated day of clear sunny weather with little wind and I had hopes of raptors in Maridalen but had to be content with just two Sparrowhawks (spurvehauk) in four hours.

Today it was back to wet, grey weather and I ditched, initially at least, my plans of heading east for lots of wildfowl and chose to twitch in Akershus. On Sunday a fine White-billed Diver (gulnebblom) was seen on a boat trip and then later twitched by others from land at a range of 3km and yesterday a Kingfisher (isfugl) was seen not too far away. Needless to say my twitching proved fruitless and I quickly decided that I would head east whilst I still had time. 

The large numbers of Greylag Geese (grågås) were now just a fraction of their numbers from last week with probably yesterdays good weather encouraging them on their way. I wasn’t Greylags I was interested in anyway, it was Bewick’s Swans (dvergsvane) or White-fronted Geese (tundragås) but these were not to be found despite me locating some flocks of Canada and Greylag Geese and Whooper Swans (sangsvane) as I continued on my travels. A few Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) were new though and correlate with large flocks reported heading south from Trøndelag the last couple of days.

The only excitement of the day came from corvids and actually a new bird for me. A flock of Hooded Crows (kråke) feeding in a stubble field attracted my attention and I stopped the car to scan them and to my surprise there were two black birds amongst them. One was an obvious adult Rook (kornkråke) but the other had a black bill. At some range in the binoculars I wasn’t sure whether it was a Carrion Crow (svartkråke) or a young Rook. I noticed what looked like a brownish tinge to the plumage which I couldn’t explain. So I decided to fire off as many pictures as I could to see if I could work out what it was at home (Carrion Crows and young Rooks look very similar). At home I actually found it was something else:  a hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow and the first time I’ve seen this type of hybrid. What I took to be a brown tinge to the plumage was actually dark grey.

At home the Blackcap (munk) is still feeding on the elder berries and our window feeder is very popular.

I had only one Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in the day which was at a new location although I failed to see any at six other locations where I have seen the species over the last couple of weeks.

Two and a Half Corvids- Rook, Hood Crow and Carrion x Hooded Crow hybrid

Carrion x Hood Crow

Rook

the hybrid

Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis) showed today as well

Blue Tit (blåmeis) and the popular window feeder