My last full day was again a day where the weather forecast was thankfully wrong and the 11m/s winds that were being forecast were replaced with often windless conditions.
Unfortunately there was still a lack of new and exciting birds with one very obvious exception. Yesterday evening Kjell and Stein had driven to the north of the island whilst I stayed in the south. When they were leaving as it was getting dark a Hoopoe had flown up in front of the car only to vanish. I drove out at sunrise this morning and the bird was by the road in exactly the same spot! I was able to drive back and collect the other two and we saw it well at a distance before it suddenly walked off the edge of the road and just vanished which is quite good going for such an obvious species as a Hoopoe.
A good couple of hours later as we were trying to get views of a skulky warbler the Hoopoe flew over us but again just disappeared after looking to land 100m away. We never found out what the warbler was and only ever saw it in flight for a couple of seconds but Blyth’s Reed would be the most likely candidate.
Otherwise the Wood produced a Redstart although I would have preferred something similar with blue in the name. The Rosefinch was still present but I finished the day without a Yellow-browed Warbler which is good going on Værøy!
I leave at 1330 tomorrow and will take the ferry to Bodø before flying back to Oslo. I chose the ferry as it gives the chance of seabirds such as shearwaters and petrels. The forecast is for strong winds though which can make for a very uncomfortable crossing so I may be spending most of time bent over the toilet… I will hopefully get some birding in before I leave as long as the winds are, again, less than forecast.
Hoopoe (hærfugl)
Today’s sunrise at 07:33
The ferry I will be taking tomorrow
Looking to the south
On the left is the Wood (skogen) and to the right the area where bird ringing is carried out
Day 4 was weather wise pretty much perfect for being in the field and far better than the forecast. Often there was no wind at all and you could hear the noise of a warbler’s bill snapping at an insect. There were only a few indications of new arrivals and it was not a big day by any stretch of the imagination but it was a good day to be out and about and 16,000 steps were pounded.
Experience of the day was a pod of Killer Whales powering through the sea off the north of the island early morning.
Bird of the day was a Common Rosefinch (only my third on Værøy and a species that is close to but not annual out here).
Learning of the day was that I cannot tell Olive-backed and Tree Pipits apart on call. These two species were traditionally considered inseparable on call but in the last 10-20 years it has been accepted that with experience you can tell apart. Based on my experiences and observations on Værøy I also thought I could but today that confidence came crashing down. I heard a pipit calling in flight and immediately identified it as an OBP. I had my phone ready to play the call and straightaway the pipit appeared above me calling and the call was as far as I was concerned the same as I was playing. It landed on the fish drying racks just a few metres away and I immediately set about taking pictures. Head on it did indeed look like an OBP with a black spot on the cheek but as it turned sideways on to me I thought the wing bars looked far too white and I wasn’t seeing any green tones. Then when it turned away and I saw the well streaked back I realised without doubt it was a Tree Pipit. This whole experience made me immediately realise my OBP record from yesterday had to be pulled and also had me wondering how I could have got it so wrong.
OBP in late autumn outnumbers TP on Værøy by around 10 to 1 and therefore identifying a bird as OBP based on call and then confirming it by seeing it is statistically very likely to happen. Had I (we) just been playing the numbers? I don’t know the answer to that but a Tree Pipit in October is rarer than an Olive-backed so I should perhaps be happy with my observation.
Other quality birds were a single YbW, Jack Snipe, Bullfinch, a tristis Chiffchaff, proper Barnacles Geese from Svalbard (rather than the feral birds around Oslo) and a Short-eared Owl and quantity was provided with hundreds of Redwings and Redpolls.
The view at 0715 - it all looked very promising
Sunrise at 07:29
Migrating Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås)
Looking north at 08:08 with the island of Mosken and behind it the Lofoten island chain
Killer Whale
Not an Olive-backed (sibirpip) but a Tree Pipit (trepiplerke)
Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)
Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)
The wood (skogen) suffered in a storm a few years ago and all the trees in the middle have now disappeared leaving just a ring of trees. The Rosefinch was in the too of the tall Rowans to the right
Very Grosbeak like
A Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin) doing an impression of a Jack by freezing at close range
Migration is ending now in Oslo and nocturnal trips and breeding birds will be the focus.
Breeding waders seem to be having a reasonable season. In addition to the Ringed Plovers that I have previously detailed I have found a Little Ringed Plovers nest, a couple of Common Sandpiper nests, Snipe are displaying at 2 locations in Maridalen and Lapwings in Maridalen keep surprising and seem to be having a good season. They are difficult to keep track of as once the young hatch they move around and hide in grass but I am confident there are four broods of young but quite possibly five with the latest just a day old when I first saw them, a pair is still incubating and another pair have been displaying but not to my knowledge made a nesting attempt. Question now is how many young will fledge.
This is the oldest brood on 22 May when they were already half grown.
female Little Ringed Plover (dverglo) on her nest
LRP nest and eggs.
Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe) nest again with 4 eggs. I found this nest when there were only 3 eggs
another Common Sand nest. As there are only 3 eggs I assume another will be laid. This nest was in a field whereas the other in woodland
Common Rosefinches seem to continue to decline with none recorded so far in Maridalen and just a couple in their stronghold of Sørkedalen. Surprisingly though a couple of brown, 1st summer, males are at Fornebu though and I managed to record them singing together.
Many species seem to have young early this year with broods of Long-tailed Tits and Starlings already on the wing.
I have only seen 3 Red-backed Shrikes tornskate) so far this year but they often don't come in force until June
young Starling (stær) with one of its parents
a young Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)
Wrynecks (vendehals) are now mostly silent - the ones who have paired up at least - and difficult to find
In my last post I wrote that I felt I must have found the Hobby
nest – well today I am less sure. Per Christian and I joined forces to try to
locate it once and for all but left just as confused as before. We located four
different old Hooded Crows nests in a very small area without seeing any bird
on any of the nests. Then we heard the male calling and he appeared overhead
with prey in his talons. The female then called and flew out of the trees
towards him. There was lots of calling but we couldn’t exactly what happened
but there was clearly a food pass. The male then sat openly calling whilst the
female must have been more hidden whilst presumably eating the prey item brought
to her. The male kept calling and flew around a bit before the female then flew
out of a tree and calling and disappeared amongst the trees. During all this
time we had been keeping an eye on the old crows nests but did not see the
female coming or going to any of them. So, either we are not observant enough
or else there is a 5th nest that we have yet to find.
this is the old Hooded Crows nest that I felt certain was being used by the Hobbies but I am now less certain
here, what I think is the male, was perched in the next door tree
A check of the Honey Buzzard nest from last year revealed
fresh green branches on it although in nearly 4 hours of watching the nest and
skies about I failed to see a bird. So here I have found the nest but not seen
the birds…. I do not know whether adding of new material of nest means that
there has to be a pair of if just a single adult will add material whilst waiting
for their mate to return but this does give high hopes for yet another chance
to follow a breeding pair.
a branch with fresh green leaves can be seen on the right hand side of the nest. It is possible that a bird could have been on the nest unseen to me but I think observed the nest long enough that I would have seen some movement
Even though I failed to see any Honey Buzzards I did have good views of a female Three-toed Woodpecker whilst waiting.
female Three-toed Woodpecker
here it has got hold of a larve
and here it is swallowing it
The Great Northern Divers remains and has now been frequenting
the northern end of the lake in the last few days.
the Great Northern Diver (islom) is always close to the shore
There are now two Common
Rosefinches in Maridalen, both brown, 2cy males and both seemingly unpaired.
2cy male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)
The Lapwings are now disappearing in the high vegetation and
yesterday I saw none but today the male of the family was clearly keeping guard
so I assume there are still some young although I have no idea whether there is
still a bird sitting on a nest.
A new Marsh Warbler reminded me that “night singers” can
still turn up but I really don’t think I am motivated for any more nocturnal trips.
We are now entering a period with lots of rain and
thunderstorms forecast which would normally get me excited but in mid-June in
Oslo I think there is little that is likely to turn up other than a Gull-billedTern…
I have kept up my nocturnal outings in an attempt to increase
#Oslo2024 and even visited Sørkedalen (as well as Maridalen) on Monday night
when conditions were perfect but think I soon need to admit defeat. Marsh
Warblers are the only birds I am finding although I did try quite hard to turn
one into a Blyth’s although cooler heads (or ears) brought me back down to
earth. I didn’t hesitate to follow up a report of one in Sørkedalen today
although as I feared (being the bad twitcher I am) I failed to find it even
though I got there only an hour later (and pictures leave no doubt as to it
having been present😊)
The
GND is still on Maridalsvannet and seems to be making short work of the
crayfish population. It is now possible to see three species of divers at the
same time. The diver went missing on Sunday before I refound it on Monday at
the southern end of the lake, around 3km from where it had been on Saturday. It
is one thing though for a diver to go awol – they do after all dive - but not
the Whooper Swan family which has just vanished. With such small cygnets they
surely cannot have gone far but I have checked all likely sites in vain.
I
have managed to find where the Hobbies are breeding though which is a new site
although I am not yet certain I have discovered which (Crows) nest they are
using.
it really poured down today although the Great Northern Diver (islom) didn't seem to mind
although Monday's nocturnal outing failed to produce any exciting "night singers" I did hear Little Ringed Plovers on a field in Sørkedalen, coincidentally the last field in the valley to hold breeding Lapwings although that is now a few years ago. I visited the next day to find the farmer working on the field and found no plovers but today I located a pair although suspect that their breeding attempt had failed to the tractor.
the male
the female
and the male again
Hobby (lerkefalk)
this 2cy male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink) is the only bird I know of in Maridalen this year although in Sørkedalen there are quite a few. In the video you can hear this bird singing
