Moutmarka

I chose a trip to Moutmarka today. This area at the south of the island of Tjøme in Vestfold has a great rarity magnet feel about it although never seems to turn up as much as it should. Just offshore however is the island of Store Færder which has a part time bird observatory and over the years has turned up many good rarities. Today for example while I was just 7km away and seeing little they caught and ringed a Red-flanked Bluetail (their second and only the fourth in Norway this autumn) and also had a Pallas's Warbler (fuglekongesanger).

Moutmarka has seaweed strewn beaches, areas of short and long grass, marshy areas and bushes and short trees, i.e a mosaic of habitats. On the sea I had Little Auk (alkekonge) and Black Guillemot (teist), the seaweed attracted Rock Pipits (skærpiplerke) and one marshy area had a couple of Water Rails. Initially calling they showed on the edge of some reeds and I even managed to see both at the same time. Otherwise there was not a great amount to see and no definitely no rare warblers, chats or thrushes.

Water Rail (vannrikse). After quite a bit of waiting it finally came out in the open

can you spot both the Water Rails in this picture?

a few Wawwings (sidensvans) were also evident today

Vestfold vandering

Today was spent in Vestfold with Rune today braving snow, icy conditions and a biting northerly wind. My target today was to find our own Water Pipit (vannpiplerke) amongst the Rock Pipits (skjærpiplerke) that usually winter on the beach at Moutmarka, Tjøme. As it turned out the snow and ice had covered the rotting seaweed that they feed on so all we found was a single Rock Pipit feeding on an offshore rock and looking very sorry for itself. Incredibly little else here although a total of six Wrens was heartening given how badly they suffered due to the cold winters a couple of years ago.

The sea had some life though with five Black Guillemots (teist), 2 flyby Little Auks (alkekonge) and a single Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) the highlights.

We tried various other places around Tjøme and Hvasser but there was little to find with the weather not making things easier for us. At Dalen we knew that some Little Grebes (dvergdykker) were wintering. We found a single bird easily and wondered why we couldn’t find anymore. Then I noticed something hiding under a small abandoned floating jetty. Putting the scope on I eventually saw 7 Little Grebes hiding here and there could well have been more. Goldeneye (kvinand), Goosander (laksand), Eider (ærfugl) and Red-breasted Merganser (siland) were encountered all around the coast.

We tried for a Hawk Owl that has been seen close to the E18 motorway but failed to find it although did have two Great Grey Shrikes in the area.

distant Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) off Moutmarka, Tjøme