Great Snipes Beitostølen

As regular readers of this blog will know I discovered a Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) lek close to Beitostølen last year and I have posted a number of pictures and videos of varying quality from this site. I paid my second visit of the year to the lek on our first night (which was lucky as this turned out to be the best weather of the whole week) and concentrated on positioning myself right and also getting camera and video settings correct (and of course use a tripod). This resulted in my best pictures and video so far and I think that without investing in better equipment or sitting in a hide that I will struggle to do better.

Mosquitos were a bit of a problem as I kneeled in the bog but copious amounts of spray meant that they just buzzed two centimetres from my eyes and ears without actually landing and biting. Very annoying but not painful at least.

When I arrived at the lek at 22:20 two birds were already singing but it wasn’t until 23:00 that the action really begun. With use of a tripod I was able to fix the ISO at 1600 and with the max aperture of f/6.3 I was able to take pictures with a shutter speed between 1/30 and 1/8 of a second. This worked OK when the bird wasn’t moving but during the display when the whole body moves then I was unable to take sharp pictures. I could have prioritised a higher shutter speed but the resulting high ISO would have given grainer pictures. I choose to take video in a zoom format rather than HD which gives closer shots but poorer quality.

In the video, note how flexible the bill of the bird is (just after 30 seconds). The birds use this flexibility when probing in mud to locate and capture worms and similar creatures.




A visit to the lek site in daylight revealed some clear paths where the birds regularly walk and also on the favoured mounds where the males display the grass was flattened and there were droppings. I also found this single feather possibly lost after a close encounter between two rival males.

presumed Great Snipe feather although I am not sure from which feather tract it stems

Note the large eye of this night active bird

Dotterels Valdresflya

One of the highlights of this year’s holiday in Beitostølen was the views we had of Dotterel (boltit). The breeding density of this fluctuates from year to year in the mountains here and some years we have failed to see the species whereas other years it has been decidedly common as it was this year. On one short walk we had at least six adults and one youngster. Two males actively approached us (and would probably have gone unnoticed otherwise) and engaged in their distraction display whereby they play injured and slowly lead us away from wherever their young are. They play that they are injured by dragging their wing or tail along the ground and then when you (or a fox) get close they fly a bit further ahead. They can do this for 100 metres before suddenly flying back to where the youngster is. When doing these distraction displays they allow very close approach, indeed they encourage it by flying to within a few metres and calling such as to get your attention. This is good for both the photographer but also for the kids who get a unique experience with a very special bird.

 

It is the male Dotterel that sits on the eggs and raises the young whilst the female courts several males and lays multiple clutches with different lovers. The female is also more colourful. The bird pictured is a male and has less bold colouring than his long vanished mate.

 

here we see a male Dotterel trying to draw my youngest daughter away from where his young were hiding

we did find one youngster which quickly ran away and disappeared - its downy plumage proving to be great camouflage

showing how close the bird came to us even when the youngster was over 50 metres away

playing injured

once he has my attention he starts moving away whilst still playing injured

trying to lure Sara to the edge of a cliff...

Big Year guiding

Back in Oslo I guided Ruth and John from Florida this morning. With four hours at our disposal I chose Maridalen and Østensjøvannet and succeeded in adding 50 species to their Big Year list which was quite good going on a hot day with very little bird song.
Best species were Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) and Common Rosefinch (rosenfink) in Maridalen.
Most exciting for me though was that water levels in Maridalvannet appear to be falling fast, exposing muddy edges. It is very unusual to have low water in the autumn and this will hopefully result in a few waders and maybe finally give me the chance to add Dunlin to my Oslo list.

Beitostølen holiday

As usual we started our summer holiday with a week based in Beitostølen on the edge of the Jotunheimen mountain range. This area is great for Scandinavian mountain birds as well as having plenty of things for the kids - also known as a win win win situation. This year though I decided to also take a bit of a holiday from birding hence no early mornings and only one nocturnal expedition.

The birding I did have though was, as usual, of a high standard. My nocturnal excursion was to the Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) lek which is barely more than a stones throw from the bright lights and music of downtown Beitostølen (there might be a few exaggerations there..).
Although it was a bit windy the birds performed admirably with two "singing" when I arrived at 22:20 and upto nine singing in total by the time I left just before midnight. My resulting pictures and video (to come later) are the best I have managed to date.

Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin)

A walk on Valdresflya produced fantastic views of Dotterel (boltit). We had two females first and then a male that flew towards and did a distraction display. Later on we had another male that flew repeatedly towards us and performed distraction displays. I located a recently hatched youngster which was about 100 metres away but the male was very persistent in trying to lead us in the other direction. We also had two Dotterel flying over here displaying. I had another two Dotterel on another visit to Valdresflya but only a single Golden Plover (heilo) on our whole trip - which is an unusual result.

Dotterel (boltit)

Shore Larks (fjellerke) and Lapland Buntings (lappspurv) were also to be seen as were a few Reindeer.
A pair of Cranes (trane) had two young in tow very close to Beitostølen and we had Hen Harrier (myrhauk) and Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk). Waterbirds were scarce but I did see single males of Scaup (bergand) and Long-tailed Duck (havelle).

Adult Crane (trane) with two youngsters

From our cabin we had regular sightings of Redstarts (rødstjert), Wheatears (steinskvett) and Kestrel (tårnfalk) with Woodcock (rugde) and Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin) displaying overhead. A couple of hares were also a regular sight.

hare

male Wheatear with food for youngsters

Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) were easily found on the tree line and in the spruce forests we heard although did not see Siberian Jay (lavskrike).

On our walk on Valdredflya shortly after having passed a pair of Ringed Plovers (sandlo) that were both trying their best to lead us on a wild plover chase we came across a cold, cracked and clearly abandoned egg lying on the path. I took it home hoping to be able to show the kids the embryo inside. On cracking it there was no embryo so the egg was presumably infertile. Due to the cold temperatures up on the mountain though it had not gone off so after a couple of minutes in the frying pan I was able to confirm that Ringed Plover egg tastes the same as chicken egg!

Ringed Plover (sandlo)

I have just included a small collection of pictures with this post and will post more later.

More Great Snipes

I paid another visit to the Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin) lek that I found near Beitostølen last year. At least nine males were displaying and with better light than on previous visits and also more focus on the right camera and video settings plus use of tripod I have come away with a memory card full of decent images that just need editing.
In the mean time I was able to take a picture with my phone of the back of the camera and load onto facebook - image should be viewable on this link

Vardø gulls

I promised (threatened?) a separate post on the Gulls we saw at Vardø. There was a lot of activity from fishing boats unloading their catch and this attracted many hundreds of gulls to the harbour. Many were resting on a jetty that we were able to drive onto and therefore come very close to them. The majority of the birds were Herring Gulls (gråmåke) with much smaller numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls (svartbak). The Herring Gulls were nearly all adults or at least adult looking but from ringed birds that we saw a number were probably in their 5th calendar year - born in 2009 – and maybe not yet breeding.

 

Gulls resting on the quayside in Vardø harbour

 

A line up of adult Herring Gulls (gråmpke) with the head of a 2cy Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak) poking out

An adult and 2cy Great Black-backed Gull with Herring Gulls. This bird seemed yellower legged and darker eyed than usual

 The only unusual gulls we saw were four 1st summer Glaucous Gulls (polarmåke) most of which looked to have some sort of injury or ailment which probably explains why they haven't gone north for the summer (for some birds Vardø is a warm winter destination!).

2cy Glaucous Gull (polarmåke). Note the deformed bill. Also note the metal ringed bird behind but we were unable to take photos to allow us to read the ring

Many of the Herring Gulls have reduced black in the wing tips seemingly restricted to the outer two primaries (P10 and P9). This could be a sign of hybridasation with Glaucous Gulls but seems so widespread that it may just be part of the natural variation this far north. One particular bird really stood out and perched it looked to be an adult Glaucous but there was some dark in the wing tips. When it flew it could be seen that the left wing had black on P7-10 but P9 was nearly all white and the right wing seemed to have lost its feather tips.

strangely white winged Herring Gull

in flight note that the right wing is missing its wing tips and on the left wing P9 is nearly all white

We also managed to read a number of colour rings. Six bore Norwegian rings and due to the fantastic internet based reporting system I was able to report the birds and get instant access to their life history. Four had been ringed as juveniles in June 2009 on nearby Hornøya, one had also been ringed here in May 2008 as an adult and another ringed as an adult in mid Norway in November 2012. One of the birds has wintered in Holland and another in Denmark but there were otherwise very few reports of these birds.

JN355 Ringed as a chick on hearby Hornøya 11.06.2009 and not subsequently reported before our sighting. This bird is in its 5th calendar year making it a fourth summer. It's plumage looks entirely adult though

More excitingly we also read the rings of two birds ringed in England by the North Thames Ringing Group. Unfortunately, the Brits rely on observers sending in observations by email and after a week I have yet to receive any reply regarding these birds......It also took me a long time to find the correct ringing scheme (using this excellent voluntarily updated website) because to my eyes the rings were red but apparently they are orange (make up your own mind). It helped that I could read the metal ring and therefore narrow my search to British schemes. I definitely think the ease of reporting the Norwegian birds encourages people to go to the effort of reading and reporting rings whilst my experience so far with the North Thames Birds has left me a little frustrated.

British ringed Herring Gull – the metal ring can also be read. But is the colour ring really orange?

British ringed Great Black-backed Gull. Although the picture is not so good I don’t think that the letters used here are the easiest to read - what is the second letter?

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