Falsterbo calling

I had a couple of hours at Fornebu this morning where I turned up nothing new although yet again got to see the Water Rails (vannrikse). This time I saw three birds feeding along the edge of the reeds (two well and one just glimpsed) and a bird calling from the reedbed (could well have been the one I glimpsed or another) which matched the call of a begging youngster. I managed some distant pictures again but nothing to write home about. The Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) showed well and there were also 30 odd Yellow Wagtails (gulerle) on the deck feeding.

Tomorrow I am off to the famous birding location of Falsterbo in southern Sweden for a combined meeting of the Nordic Rare Bird Committees. We will be sharing experiences, squeezing in some birding and learning from some interesting presentations including three from Mr. LARS SVENSSON himself – should be very very interesting!

Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

Skylark (sanglerke) - it's not often I get a chance to photograph this species

Water Rail (vannrikse) - an adult

Whinchat (buskskvett)

On a wild godwit chase

Today was instalment two of the “Curious Incident of the Godwit That Wasn’t”.

I was planning a trip to Kurefjorden today (with the water levels so high at Årnestangen at the moment this is the best site for any volume of waders) and when I saw that two Black-tailed Godwits (svarthalespove) were reported yesterday it confirmed my choice. I have seen a couple of Black-tailed Godwits here once before although on many other occasions I have been there the day after reports of Black-tailed only to find an equal number of Bar-tailed (go figure). I think that the scarcity of Black-tailed plus the variability in Bar-tailed (lappspove) isn’t appreciated and that people call distant feeding birds as Black-tailed without waiting to see them in flight. When I arrived another observer was already looking at what he called as a Black-tailed although it was with the sun behind it and I could not see enough to make a call. As I looked elsewhere and waited for the bird in question to move into a more favourable position it flew and received its correct identification...... In total there were three Bar-tailed Godwits today and yesterday the report was of 1 Bar-tailed and 2 Black-tailed......

Waders were in good numbers though and we had a single Curlew Sandpiper (tundrasnipe), 1 adult and 10 juvenile Knot (polarsnipe), 60 Ruff (brushane), 50 Dunlin (myrsnipe), 20 Ringed Plovers (sandlo) and a Spotted Redshank amongst others. Signs of the autumn were abundant and juvenile waders now far outnumber adults and the migration of Wood Sandpiper (grønnstilk) is now all but over.

In sunny and fairly calm conditions raptors put on a good show and there were at least 9 Buzzards (musvåk), 5 Osprey (fiskeørn), a Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) and singles of  Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) and Goshawk (hønsehauk).

Yellow Wagtail (gulerle) numbers are also building up and I had five Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate), 2 Marsh Warblers (myrsanger) and a few Whinchats (buskskvett) on my travels. One other noticeable bird at the moment is Siskin (grønnsisik) which seems to be everywhere in large flocks  - it looks like there is some sort of major movement happening.

My photographic efforts today were not out of the top drawer and this (my best) picture of a Red-backed Shrike sums it up.

I normally like to hear a pipit call to aid in its identification but when Tree Pipits (trepiplerke) are so well marked as this bird it isn't always necessary (it did call aswell though!)

Keeping it local

Bluethroats (blåstrupe) showed in both Maridalen and Fornebu (pictured) today

I had a whole morning for birding today and kept it local with Maridalen and Fornebu on the cards.

In Maridalen the five Black-throated Divers (storlom) and single Whooper Swan (sangsvane) were still on the lake and the wet meadow at Kirkeby held four Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin) but not the hoped for Great Snipe (dobbeltbekkasin). Checking the area at Brenners and Nes which had been bird rich yesterday I had a Cuckoo (gjøk) fly over and then pounce down into a field where it took a big, fat, juicy green caterpillar. I tried unsuccessfully to get closer for a picture but as I did so flushed a Bluethroat (blåstrupe) which is only the third time I have had one in Maridalen. I also had a calling Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) as well as Great Spotted (flaggspett) and Black (svartspett).

At Fornebu I again had a Water Rail (vannrikse) showing out on the edge of the mud at Strøykilen and it called frequently to draw attention to itself. Also here two Dunlin (myrsnipe).

spot the Water Rail (vannrikse)

In the areas of wasteland which make up the bird rich areas of Nansenpark and which will in a few years disappear under concrete there were three Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate), a showy Bluethroat (blåstrupe) and good numbers of Whinchats (buskskvett) and Whitethroats (tornsanger). I pished at a few locations and at one where I had seen a couple of Willow Warblers (løvsanger) in the undergrowth my pishing brought forward at least 20 birds which I would otherwise have been unaware of. Yesterday Rune did well to find a Barred Warbler (hauksanger) at Fornebu and this has to be the most likely scarce bird to look for in the next couple of weeks (they are probably annual here in the beginning of September based on ringing records) although something rarer would of course be welcome.

one of a good number of Willow Warblers (løvsanger)

Garden Warbler (hagesanger) - its distinguishing feature is that it has no distinguishing features

Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) - one of three at Fornebu

that Bluethroat again

Wryneck

Wryneck (vendehals) in Maridalen

Just time for a trip around Maridalen today. An adult Whooper Swan (sangsvane) was on the lake but was on its own – there have been no reports of the breeding birds since the spring so it will be interesting to see if they appear again out of the forest with their youngsters as they did last year or more likely their breeding attempt failed this year.

An adult Black-throated Diver (storlom) with two youngsters were probably the result of breeding elsewhere as the young could fly and I have seen no other evidence of breeding here this year.  Both Canada and Greylag Geese (grågås) have bred successfully this year although I see them VERY infrequently. Today two adult Canada Gesse with two not yet fully grown youngsters showed themselves.

Whilst checking the fields at Nes I looked down into the bay below and saw a tern (my first here this year) which was being harassed by a Hobby (lerkefalk). It was all too quick to see if the Hobby was actually having a go at the tern which is the same size at it but the tern easily rebuffed the attention. In all the excitement I failed to ID the tern although it was probably Common (Makrellterne) and when I relocated it later it was too distant. I also saw the Hobby streaking past later on and with a few sightings in July and August there is probably breeding close by although the lack of sightings in May and June suggests not in the core area of Maridalen.

Whilst checking out some fields which had a good collection of Greenfinches (grønnfink) and White Wagtails (linerle) I picked up Wryneck (vendehals) which was feeding under a bush and occasionally sat up in it with some Greenfinches when it showed itself to be hardly any larger than them. It was not too far from where the breeding birds were in May and June so could well be from that family or possibly a migrant. Wrynecks are very cryptic birds when not singing and the breeding birds have not been reported since 10 June although if breeding was successful would have been around longer.

Wrynecks only sing when they are setting up their territory and for the rest of the season are silent (they don’t even seem to have a contact call). This combined with their general habits makes them very inconspicuous so it is normally only by disturbing a feeding bird that one gets to see them. One good thing though with their quietness outside of the early breeding season is that from late summer onwards you can be sure that it is a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker calling when you hear that falcon like kii,kii,kii call coming from woodland (the calls of two are notoriously alike). I did play the song on my phone and it got the birds attention but it remained silent.

Godwit(s)

Yesterday due to the constraints I time I dropped Koksa which is a bay that can hold waders but invariably has very little. I was therefore a bit annoyed to see that a Black-tailed Godwit (svarthalespove) had been seen there later in the day. This is a very local species in Norway and decidedly rare around Oslo and one I have only seen four times in Norway - so definitely a bird I would try to see. This morning I also only had a pre breakfast birding window and although I would loved to have been sitting at Brentetangen waiting to see what the very strong southerly winds would be bringing I chose Fornebu again. I headed straight to Koksa at 6am and soon found a godwit but unfortunately a BAR-tailed (lappspove) and not a BLACK-tailed. Chances of there being two different birds are mighty slim so looks like one of birdings classic species pairs has yet again set its trap for the unwary (later confirmed from photos).

This bird gave me a fantastic photo opportunity albeit in crappy light. This species stands out as a large wader when seen in a mixed flock but close up on its own looks very small.

Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove). With a shutter speed of 1/100 sec you can see the rain bouncing off its back

what are YOU looking at?

The wind picked up and it started raining hard such that I hardly saw a single passerine and just a few other waders: 3 Dunlin (myrsnipe), 9 Snipe (enkeltbekkasin), 2 Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe), 12 Lapwing (vipe), a Ringed Plover (sandlo) and a Greenshank (gluttsnipe).

There was nothing for it then but to head for Rolfstangen and see if the winds had managed to push anything this far up the fjord. Despite it really blowing two juvenile Arctic Terns (rødnebbterne) were the only birds that were out of place.

A drive around Fornebu after this once the rain had stopped showed that passerines were now showing and I had two Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) and some Whinchats (buskskvett) from the car.