Vestfold Geese

The festive season normally sees a visit to the Bro’ in law in Tønsberg (an hours drive south of Oslo) which allows me some birding at Presterødkilen and this year was no different. There have been quite a few White-fronted Geese with a smaller number of Bean Geese in the area and on the journey down I just managed to see a flock of 20 White-fronts and a single Bean Goose which were feeding on a green field by the road into town. The White-fronts were of the European albifrons race and the Bean was a tundra rossicus which is the expected race for the time of year. The Bean though has been reported as a tundra fabalis which can be understood as this is an individual with an exceptionally long bill however the neck and head shape show it to be a rossicus. These two races can at times be very difficult to tell apart.

Today I visited Presterødkilen and here too were some geese: 10 White-fronts and a single Bean but different birds to those I saw yesterday although of the same races. The birds were unusually close and were perhaps in fairly poor condition. The White-fronts contained two 1cy birds lacking white fronts and barring on the belly and with dark bill nails (and one of these got confused with a Greylag). There were also 1 or 2 birds with reduced white and very little barring which I took to be 2cy birds whereas the remaining birds were clear adults. The closeness of the flock clearly led to difficulties in counting them as the count of White-fronts ranged from 9-11 depending on who reported them!

Presterødkilen held a number of other birds (it is always much better here mid winter than Oslo) including 2 Smew, 3 Scaup, Bearded Tits, Pochard, Wigeon, Common and Velvet Scoter and Rook. After I left a couple of Kingfishers also entertained all and sundry.

Tundra Bean Goose (sædgås) with White-fronted Geese (tundragås) 

an adult White-fronted Goose with a far less obvious 1cy bird 

5 White-fronts including a 1cy (second left) and an assumed 2cy (2nd right)

all 11 geese with the Bean on the left

the male Pochard (taffeland) with Mallards and Tufted

Owls save the day

Guiding is a fickle business. I learnt early on that guaranteeing a bird was a fools game but when I received a long wish list from Roberto from Spain I didn't feel I was sticking my neck too far out when I said that Willow Tit and Redpoll wouldn't be a problem. How wrong could I be?!
The feeders in Maridalen where I haven't failed to see a Willow Tit this winter were devoid of birds despite me having stocked them up with food (nobody else seems to do so anymore although many people stop to take pictures..)
The Great Grey Shrike did show well which was one target bird down but Maridalen was not very generous otherwise.
With Hawk Owl and a number of duck species also on the wish list we soon headed for Vestfold. Hawkie was showing on arrival and we met a photographer leaving the site who proudly showed the fantastic pictures that he had taken with help of the good old mouse on fishing line trick. I know that this is the trick used to get all the award winning owl pictures and I have often wondered where I can get hold of a dead mouse but I can't help but wonder about the ethics of this technique. The owl had apparently attacked the mouse three times with resulting great pictures but had not taken the mouse when the photographer discarded it as he left. A check of the mouse showed it to be dried out and presumably not particularly attractive for the owl. The owl had therefore expounded quite a bit of energy for no reward and was clearly still in hunting modus as it sat high up looking intently around.
We were lucky enough though to see it twice fly down and catch a (live and kicking) rodent. Both times it seemed to react instantaneously to the sight or sound of the mouse and it flew down without any warning or hesitation. Both times it flew over 50metres in a flat glide before dropping down unseen into long grass. The first mouse was taken to the top of the highest spruce where after ripping off a bit of flesh it swallowed the rest in one go. I thought it would then have a snooze but it remained very alert (and also looked very thin) and 20 minutes later it flew down again and took a second mouse. This one it took half way up a birch tree and swallowed it unseen. After this the owl seemed content and then returned to the top of a birch and wiped its bill and set about preening. I don't know how many mice a Hawk Owl needs in a day but two in quick succession seemed at least to be enough for breakfast.
We spent an hour with Hawkie and the weather and light were fantastic with temperatures of -10C in Maridalen rising to +6C as the day wore on in Vestfold.
After Hawkie we headed for Presterødkilen where a number of northern ducks were going to be ticked off and photographed. Disastrously though the overnight freezing temperatures and most importantly no wind had caused the whole bay to freeze over to an extent I have not seen before. One tiny area of open water held a few Tufted Ducks, Mute Swans and a rare Pochard but these were not what we were looking for. We tried to find where the other ducks had moved to but did not succeed.
With a need for something good we checked all the bays from Tønsberg to Horten but despite water with hardly a ripple disturbing it there were incredibly few birds to be seen - one of the worst experiences I have had in these parts.
Hoping to salvage the afternoon I had an idea of where we could have another go for Willow Tit and also Three-toed Woodpecker and visited a really nice area of mixed spruce woodland. Of course there were no Willow Tits or any woodpeckers but the day felt saved when we discovered a pair of Pygmy Owls. Roberto proved to be a great mimic of the male’s song which gave us prolonged and at times close views of this tiny killing machine.

I wonder whether Willow Tit and Redpoll will be the first and second or perhaps second and third species I see when I visit Maridalen next?

Hawkie where we first saw him after he had been teezed (tormented?) with a dead, dry mouse

here in the process of bringing up a pellet

it occasionally came lower down

ripping into mouse 1

about to go down the hatch - look at the talons

 

here it had a shake and looked quite portly

but here when perched erect it looks incredibly thin - almost as though its bone are poking out

20 minutes after devouring mouse 1, it had spied a new snack

mouse 2 safely captured

this one was eaten in private

getting ready for a post breakfast rest

the only open water in Presterødkilen with a single Pochard (taffeland) amongst commoner fare

The tiny Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

when singing its head changes shape

flight shots never work out properly

but perched shots sometimes work out

Guiding to Hawkie

There was a complete change in the weather today with blue skies and little wind.  I was guiding David Collins, author of a Walk Through Fuerteventura, and his wife. There was one clear target bird: Hawk Owl. With it being an hours drive from Oslo there was enough time for the nerves to grow – would it still be there (the last report of it was Wednesday)? When we drove past the (typical) roadside sight it was not visible and I could feel the air going out of the balloon but as I turned the car round to park I suddenly saw it – result! It was perched up in a garden (I do hope that they keep a garden list).

We enjoyed the owl at fairly close range (had to respect the privacy of the householders) but in typical Hawkie style it did precious little other than have the odd scratch.

After this we visited Presterødkilen, Tønsberg where we had close views of Smew, Scaup and Goshawk. We tried for Waxwing in Horten amongst all the misteltoe berries but had to be content with a Mistle Thrush.

The day ended with close and prolonged views of the Great Grey Shrike in Maridalen and everyone was happy J

Hawk Owl - a lifer for David

and a bit closer

2cy Goshawk and a male judging by its size in comparison to the Hooded Crow. A shame I focused on the wrong bird

the bird is ringed probably making it the same bird as photographed here earlier in the winter

Grey Heron - arty shot?

female Scaup (bergand) with Tufted Ducks (toppand) Presterødkilen

female Smew (lappfiskand) Presterødkilen

Tree Sparrow (pilfink)

 

Maridalen GG Shrike - a nice way to finish the day

Juletide birding

I managed just under an hour of real in the flesh birding today whilst visiting family in Tønsberg. The bird rich bay at Presterødkilen was frozen over but at the edge of the ice by Rosanes there was quite a concentration of birds visible in the half light of a late December overcast morning. Most exciting was a male Smew (lappfiskand) probably the first male of this species I have seen for over a year. Some interesting behaviour came from a mixed flock of Scaup (bergand) and Wigeon (brunnakke). The Scaup were actively feeding by diving and coming up with grass like vegetation which the Wigeon would then either eat what was discarded by the Scaup or sometimes try to steal from the Scaup. Without this source of food I cannot see how the Wigeon would be able to survive here when there is so much ice.

The male Smew - even white birds look grey on days like this

This Grey Heron would presumably have had trouble catching a fish from this position

The mixed Scaup and Wigeon flock

I had a small redpoll flock also containing a single Siskin (grønnsisk) which is a scarce sight this winter. One bird was a Lesser Redpoll (brunsisik) but the rest including this bird looked more like Common (Mealy) Redpolls (gråsisik) although this bird does have a quite buffy coloured wing bar which might be more consistent with it being a Lesser - not always an easy subject matter.

Squeezing it in

Last week was autumn half term so birding took a back seat. Yesterday morning though I stole an hour at Presterødkilen in Tønsberg and this morning I snuck out to Fornebu whilst the rest of the family slept.

Presterødkilen was grey and damp but I did have 4 Black-tailed Godwits (svarthalespove) which were my first and most likely only of the year. Also here good numbers of ducks with 180 Wigeon (brunnakke).

Fornebu was however pretty quiet. A handful of Chiffchaffs (gransanger) were still in the bushes but were the only warblers I could find. Fewer waders too with just 5 Lapwing (vipe) and 2 Dunlin (myrsnipe). No Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) yet although I have high hopes that we will again be graced with their presence later in the autumn. A single Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) and Water Rail (vannrikse) were perhaps the scarcest birds of the day.

Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove) in the gloom

Presterødkilen at low tide with mud flats and reedbeds

this buck Roe Deer at Fornebu is very confiding but always has a very sad look about himself

Water Pipits and Vestfold

Water Pipits (vannpiplerke) are very interesting birds in that they are the only European bird I can think of that migrates north in winter. They breed in the mountains of central Europe and winter by wetlands and sometimes coasts in lowland Europe (both north and south of the breeding grounds). They are also a very tricky species to identify and were until fairly recently treated as a subspecies of Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke), indeed in the authoratitive Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP) from 1988 it says, under Field Characters: “Rock and Water Pipit groups separable in adult breeding plumage but often not so at other times”. Water Pipit is a rarity in Norway with no more than a couple of records annually normally of birds associating with Rock Pipits on sandy beaches where they can find insects amongst piles of rotting seaweed. I have never seen Water Pipit in Norway and I must admit to being slightly sceptical to some records as I believe that the variability in litoralis Rock Pipit is greater than is generally accepted. The Rock Pipit I saw 7 November is a good example of a very pale Rock Pipit showing many characters of Water. Today was therefore a good opportunity for me to see Water Pipit side-by-side with litoralis Rock Pipit.

Two Water Pipits were reported on Sunday from Nevlungstranda, Mølen in Vestfold which at nearly two hours drive from home is right at the edge of my self-imposed limit for regular birding trips. Today I only managed to find a single bird with certainty amongst 12 Rock Pipits (20 were recorded on Saturday). When I first arrived around 0930 the sun had yet to rise over the horizon although the light was good. This meant that I could watch the pipits in a neutral light. I found the pipits quite easily feeding amongst the boulders and seaweed and the third bird I saw was clearly a Water Pipit. It’s underparts were very white and it stood out like a sore thumb.

Water Pipit on the left with a Rock Pipit on the right. The colour difference is very clear in this picture which is taken in a neutral light

close up of the Water Pipit (vannpiplerke)

After the sun rose it became a bit more difficult. The birds became wary plus the warm, low winter light made judging colours challenging. A Rock Pipit bird with the sun on it could suddenly appear to have very white underparts whereas the upperparts could have a warm brown tinge which is supposed to be one of the features of water pipit. However, with good views the Water Pipit could be picked out.

Water Pipit in sunlight.

Whilst not the best picture this is the best for seeing the main ID feature of Water Pipit. This pictures shows the rufous brown (nutty brown) rump of Water Pipit. Note also the white outer-tail feathers, white base colour to underparts, strong white supercilium and clear white wing bars.

This pose is similar to the bird above in neutral light but note how the upperpart colours look much warmer in the sunlight

With the sun shining on it the bird on the left appeared very pale on the underparts. It is also sunning itself and has its feather fluffed up. I never got to grips with it in the field but assume this is a (the) Water Pipit. Compared to the Rock Pipit to the right (which does not have the sun directly on it) the uperparts have a distinct browner hew.

One of the Rock Pipits bore a yellow colouring ring EEL. This bird has been recorded at Mølen previously with the first record on 2.11.2011. The bird was ringed at Giske, Møre & Romsdal, Norway on 02.10.2011 and was seen at Mølen already on 02.11.2011. It spent the rest of the winter there and was back again for the winter on 30.10.2012. Colour ringed birds from the same location have also been seen in Sussex, England (my old stomping ground).

Rock Pipit

Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke). The yellow brown ground colour to the underparts leaves no doubt this is a Rock Pipit but the upperparts had a very warm brown hew in the low winter sunlight.

On the sea a single Long-tailed Duck (havelle) and two Shags (toppskarv) amongst commoner seabirds were good finds.

I had a walk around nearby Mølen where there were 100 Velvet Scoters (sjøorre) and a Red-necked Grebe (gråstrupedykker) were the highlights.

Driving towards Tønsberg I took the scenic route hoping to score some Hawkie as I needed a hit. And sure enough.......

A Hawk Owl has been seen in this area in since 8th December but was last reported 22^nd December.

In Tønsberg I visited Presterødkilen. Here the bay was entirely covered in ice despite it being barely zero degrees and the last few days not having been particularly cold. The reeds still held Water Rail (vannrikse) and Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) although I only heard them calling. I had to go out to the open sea to find some ice free water although fog made visibility quite limited. At Jarlsø two Little Grebes (dvergdykker) were nice to get onto the year list.