Skjeggmeis

The title of today’s post is the Norwegian for Bearded Tit and for once means the same in both languages. I also note from my CD of birds calls that the German name is Bartmeise which I believe means Moustache Tit! I guess that this birds look is so distinctive that it shouldn't be a surprise that it has been named similarly in different languages.

Beard or moustache? The German's might actually have got this one right!

Today was another damp and cloudy day but Julian Bell was in town so we took a trip to Fornebu. There really was very little on show and it looks like warblers have now had enough and headed south. The Bearded Tits were still showing in the reedbed at Koksa though although it took a while for them to appear and they flew in although probably not from too far away. I had great views of a pair but suspected there to be more birds calling although realised also that the same birds could sound either close of far away depending on how they called.

this female is showing a slight 'tache as well

Also a Greenshank is still hanging on here which is quite a late record. Winds are from the south at the moment although are not very strong but enough to warrant a check of the sea from Rolfstangen. Four Velvet Scoter and a single Razorbill were the only birds of note (although Per Buertange had had Guillemot and Little Auk off Bygdøy earlier in the day). Three Waxwings flew over.




Tuesday 22 October

First Snow

The first snow of the autumn came yesterday although was nothing to write home about and disappeared very quickly. I did manage a nice shot of the autumnal trees in Maridalen though with a slight dusting of snow.

The first cold period in inland Norway normally forces out a few lingering migrants. One species that has yet to really turn up away from its breeding grounds is Great Grey Shrike (varsler). This species has I believe had a good breeding year and maybe there is still enough food in the breeding areas plus OK weather such that it hasn’t needed to migrate yet. Anyway, I hoped that a trip to Aurskog-Høland today would at least turn one up and so it did but I had to work quite hard for it – suddenly there it was though on a roadside treetop in the species characteristic manner.

Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

The day didn’t turn up too much else. I had hoped for various geese but it was only Greylag (grågås) and Canada which were to be found even though both species are still present in good numbers. In some years many thousands of Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) stop to feed in Akershus and bring with them Bean (sædgås) and White-fronted Geese (tundragås). This year though the migration of Pink-feets seems to have gone by a different route because there have been very few records in these parts.

Diving ducks were on Hellesjøvannet in good numbers with 29 Pochard (taffeland) and 4 Scaup (bergand) amongst the Tufteds (toppand), Goldeneye (kvinand) and Goosanders (laksand). Pochard turn up here in July, peak in September and then decline until the ice comes. Scaup on the other hand only turn up in late autumn and stay a few weeks before heading for the coast. Dabbling ducks were also present in their hundreds but were represented by just one species: Mallard (stokkand).

Due to it raining pretty much the whole day there was not much of a showing from raptors or passerines but they are also likely to be present in much reduced numbers now.

a pair of Whooper Swans (sangsvane) with three youngsters were on fields by Hellesjøvannet. A pair bred here and had four youngsters last time I saw them but maybe bave lost one

always good to stretch those wings -  autumn migration may well take them to the continent

weekend birding

Yesterday I again heard crossbills outside the house and this time made a dash from the bathroom finally paid off with a flock of seven birds feeding in some ornamental dwarf pine trees. The trees, in the next door garden, are not more than 3 metres high and have very small cones but clearly provide a tasty snack. One nice red male was even singing! The birds flew up onto nearby wires where they were relatively at ease with my presence and allowed me some to take a couple of pictures. Unfortunately there were none with wing bars or big deep bills. Maybe I should have taken a recording of the voice to identify them to one of the at least six races of Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) that are said to occur in northern Europe (or maybe not...) and for which call is the only sure means of separating amongst them.

adult female Crossbill (grankorsnebb) in the garden. It is aged due to the clean plumage and ssexed due to the green colouration

juvenile (left) with scaly plumage and adult female right

Today was the day for the annual bird club boat trip in the Oslo fjord. There was little to suggest that we would see much but it is always a nice trip so Per Christian and I put on some warm clothes (although in my case not warm enough) and joined the rather small turnout.

Velvet Scoter (sjøorre) were quite numerous and far outnumbered Common Scoter (svartand) but auks were very scarce as there have not been strong southerly winds to blow them into the inner fjord. A single Little Auk (alkekonge) was nice though although was only seen distantly in flight. Three Guillemots (lomvi) showed better and a flyby auk was probably a young Razorbill (at this age these have much slimmer beaks and require close views to nail). Raptors put on a good show though with three Sparrowhawks (spurvehauk), one Kestrel (tårnfalk), two Peregrines (vandrefalk) and a Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk) hunting over a small island which must have a population of voles.

Guillemot (lomvi)

Two Common Scoters (svartand) in female/immature plumage

the same two birds again. Here we can see they have dark bellies showing they are adult females although I don't know the significance of the pale tips to the greater coverts.

Velvet Scoters (sjøorre)

 Interestingly most of the Velvet Scoters we see are adult males and this has been the case in previous years. Common Scoters have normally always been immatures -shown by them having pale bellies in flight. This year though the only two Common Scoters that allowed themselves to be aged and sexed (out of 5 birds in total) were adult females. Maybe there has been a poor breeding season for them?

One for the nerds

Great sunny weather today caused me to go searching for the Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) at Fornebu to get even better pictures. Well that was a waste of time as two hours of waiting produced no Beardies and as my attempts to photograph chiffchaffs proved the bright low autumn sun may allow a lower ISO but was extremely challenging otherwise.

I met Jan Erik Haugen when I arrived at Fornebu and he had heard a bird he believed was the tristis Chiffchaff (gransanger) and a quick check of a recording I had on my phone confirmed this was the sound. We both went over to the reedbed at Koksa where after a short wait we heard the bird briefly. It called a couple of times in a typical tristis manner (monosyballic “peep”) and after a short wait a chiffchaff popped out of the reeds and showed in a tree.

This is the type of call I heard:

This bird looked the part and when I played the call of tristis it immediately reacted by looking at me and flying closer, but did not call. I was quite happy with this being a (the) tristis although wanted better (portrait) pictures. We lost the bird after it dropped down into the reedbed and it was around half-an-hour later and 100m away that we again heard a chiffchaff but this was not the classic tristis sound, nor was it the classic “huit” of a normal western chiffchaff. It was somewhere between the two and corresponds with what are often reported as “eastern Chiffchaff” (I don't believe there is agreement as to the exact identity of these birds but presumably an intergrade between western Chiffchaffs and tristis).

This recording from xeno-canto has a similar call to the second bird:

 

This bird also popped up out of the reeds (although again I never actually saw it calling) and on restricted views looked the same as the previous bird although I did not get to really grill it.

I did get pictures of both birds and whilst not entirely conclusive they do support that there were two different individuals although it would have been nice to see and/or hear both at the same time to irrefuteably confirm that there were two individuals present.Based on the fact that I heard two different calls and that the photos back up that there were two different birds then it looks like there was both a tristis and an "eastern" Chiffchaff in the same area.

Bird (sighting) 1, which popped up after briefly hearing a tristis call and which also flew towards me when I played the call of tristis. A pale bird with shades of grey and brown.

 

no yellow or green colours visible. Also note the very weak bill which is given as a tristis character

 

the best profile picture I managed. The suggestion of a wing bar is a good tristis sign as is the distinct black allula.

here the light was against me but note the contrasting wing with darker flight feathers and suggestion of a pale wing bar

Bird 2. This individual called like an "eastern" Chiffchaff and not like a classic tristis. The crown looks to be more olive than in Bird 1, the bill stronger and there is a yellow wash below the wing on the right side of the bird (which is present in other pictures and seemingly not an effect of the light). This yellow wash counts against tristis and is not present in the pictures of Bird 1.

I never got any pictures of this bird in profile but

there is a yellow wash under the wing here which is not visible on bird 1

We also surprised a male crossbill sp from a small pine tree which flew low over us calling. It was all over very quickly and there was no trumpet call and I only saw the underside of the wings but I am 90% sure it was Two-barred. The call had me first thinking of redpoll and the red colouration seemed far more scarlet like than on a Common Crossbill but it all happened to briefly to be sure. Something to search for again.

Passing of autumn

Today I guided a school class from Kjelle VGS around Årnestangen. The pupils are lucky enough to be studying nature management (naturforvaltning) - why wasn't I able to study that at the age of 16?

Unfortunately Årnestangen bore all the signs of the passing of autumn and there few birds to be seen. Even though there was still exposed mud there was not a single wader to be seen and duck numbers are also much reduced as a result of there being far less vegetation in the water to eat. No raptors either unfortunately.

A couple of hundred Wigeon (brunnakke) were the most numerous bird and 12 Shelduck (gravand) were a relatively high number for this time of the year.

A quick buzz around Maridalen revealed very little except for a Merlin (dvergfalk) in hot pursuit of some unidentified finches.

In the garden the birds at the feeder are consuming vast quantities of sunflower seeds everyday. Amongst the Tree and House Sparrows, Blue and Great Tits are a couple of Nuthatches and a male Brambling.

Wrong wing bars and wrong trumpet

Rune and I took a trip to Hvaler again today and met up with Per Buertange and Morten Nilsen. My hope was to find a Pallas’s Warbler (fuglekongesanger) which have just started turning up in Scandinavia but Jules Bell had the honour of finding the first for the year in Norway over on Herdlevær near Bergen. Otherwise, I was hoping for some good passage as the weather was looking to be similar to last Thursday.

Unfortunately there was much less passage with the exception of Bullfinches (dompap) which were still going through in good numbers and we must have had over 150 during the course of the day. A fair share of the birds had trumpet like calls indicating an easterly origin. Birds with these calls would often be in the same flock as birds with a normal call suggesting that these Bullfinches are coming from a wide area of Scandinavia and probably Siberia. I hadn’t noted any Bullfinches with trumpet calls on Friday but I did hear a trumpet call which I had ID’d as being that of a Two-barred Crossbill (båndkorsnebb). Hearing these Bullfinches today made me doubt myself though so I have quietly deleted the 2BC record....

There were no 2BC’s for Rune and I today but there were Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb) flying around all the time and one small flock that landed on a dwarf pine tree and started devouring the cones contained a male with small but distinct wing bars. These type of birds are a known confusion with 2BS’s but this particular bird had far too narrow wing bars to really confuse anyone – interesting bird though.

poor picture of a Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) with wing bars

same bird

a pair of normally marked Crossbills

Otherwise goof birds were a couple of migrating Bean Geese (sædgås) and a Ring Ouzel (ringtrost). We located a few more Chiffchaffs (gransanger) and Blackcap (munk) than I had last week but nothing rarer.

male Blackcap (munk)- guess what he was eating

on the left is a shot of got of the Siberian (tristis) Chiffchaff at Fornebu on Monday and on the right a "normal" Chiffchaff photographed today. Note the yellow tones on the normal bird espesially on the underwing coverts which are missing on the tristis