Au revoir

 A family trip to the Botanical Gardens gave me a fleeting chance to enjoy the two remaining Two-bars and say au revoir to them in 2013 although I hope to make their aquaintence again in 2014

The birds were not in their usual berry tree but had chosen another and were feeding with Fieldfares. It took me a long time to find them even though I could hear them calling but this was because they were only 3 or 4 metres away and I was looking further up in the tree! The light was appaling but I turned the flash on and got some better shots. Unfortunately I only had a couple of minutes to use with the birds but it would have been fun experimenting with the flash and also get the birds in something like a nice position.

male with natural light and exposure

the male without flash but exposure fored up to lighten the picture

with flash

female with flash

male with flash - unfortunately the berry is most in focus

Real Birding

Yesterday, whilst delivering xmas cards I bumped into per Christian who asked me why I wasn't doing any proper birding but instead wandering around parks like an old woman. Well PC today I tried to do something about that!

Yesterday evening there were extreme weather warnings concerning the outer Oslofjord and a check of the weather maps revealed storm force southerly winds were forecast for this morning. To my surprise I was given the green light for a trip providing I was back by noon. As I drove down to Krokstrand in the dark there were branches in the road which left me feeling optimistic for the seawatch but fearful that a fallen tree would prevent me getting there (or home later).

There were no problems in the end though and I arrived at Krokstrand at 0850 and in the half light (sunrise wasn't until 0910) I settled down and initially struggled to see if the white birds were Herring Gulls (gråmåke), Common Gulls (fiskemåke) or Kittiwakes (krykkje). I was there mildy surprised when a message came through that further south at Brentetangen they had already seen Sabine’s Gull (sabinemåke) and Manx Shearwater (havlire). Either there is a new night vision 'scope on the market, they are half owl or those guys were injecting carrot juice because they had outstanding (near) nocturnal vision!

As there were blue skies today there was eventually good light for seawatching. Even though temperatures were above zero I left there cold to the bone and a 45 minute drive home with the heating on full blast wasn’t enough to warm me up and I had to jump straight into a hot shower once home!

Well did I get any reward for some “real birding”? Kittiwake, Fulmar (havhest), Gannet (havsule) and Little Auk (alkekonge) were all seen and are “real” seabirds but there was no proper excitement. The Kittiwakes were present in good numbers with around 100 feeding in the fjord further south and a handful passing by my watch point. A single Fulmar spent most of the time flying around or sitting on the sea directly out from me.

Auks were noticeable by their absence except for a 5 minutes period when 2 Little Auks and 4 Guillemots (lomvi) struggled south. A single Red-throated Diver (smålom) shot past in the other direction with the tail wind giving it a very impressive speed.

Yesterday a pair of Great Tits were inspecting a nest box in the garden on the shortest day of the year in temperatures of +8C showing just show topsy turvy the environment is becoming.

The predator

I have little time for birding in these festive times but a brief period of sunshine tempted me into a detour via the Botanical Gardens. THE berry tree which quite surprisingly still has a few berries on it was devoid of birds today but the park itself still held some interest. The two remaining Two-Bars were feeding high and exposed in a larch tree and actually in sunlight. I got the camera out but was distracted by alarming thrushes as a hawk crashed into a tree but failed to catch anything. The crossbills reacted very late and flew up in circles calling before landing a couple of hundred metres away. Judging by their obliviousness, until too late, of the hawk it is little surprise that they have been whittled down from 5 to 2 in the course of a month.

I had assumed based on size that the hunting hawk was a Sparrowhawk but 5 minutes later i had a perched young Goshawk (hønsehauk). Clearly a Goshawk on plumage and proportions whilst perched it then flew and looked remarkably small and Sparrowhawk like so I'll pass over on the identity of the first hawk.

1cy male Goshawk. Aged due to the vertical stripes on the underparts and brown plumage. Sexed on (small) size

The rest of the bird scene was made up of the usual suspects: a couple of Hawfinches and Chaffinches, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and 20 or so Fieldfares. The Blackbirds in the park are very used to people and I have noticed before that a couple are ringed. I got to see one very well today and could see it was Norwegian ringed. I have never seen anyone report ringing activities from the gardens but there are  ringers out there who unfortunately only report to the ringing authority and with the close proximity of the Natural History Museum and staff who undoubtedly have ringing licences I assume that the bird is actually ringed in the gardens.

this ringed Blackbird allowed very close approach but despite taking a number of photos I am not entirely wise as to the ring number. That it is a Norwegian einged bird can be ascertained by the fact that is says "STAVANGER MUSEUM" horizontally at the top of the ring but perhaps more tellingly because is says "NORWAY" vertically. I am not, at the time of writing, entirely sure how many digits this ring should have but from what I can make out it is "72451520".

the same bird. That it is a male Blackbird is not to be disputed but how old is it? There are brown tinges in the underparts and the flight feathers which point to it being a 1cy but the bill is very orange although does have a dark area on the upper mandible. From what I can read a 2cy at this time of the year (very soon to be a 3cy) should look like a full adult ie black feathers and no black on bill. This leads me to believe therefore that this bird is 1cy but a far more advanced bird than the one I pictured from two days ago.

I have, after posting these pictures, been told that a Norwegian ring used on a Blackbird would have 7 digits beginning with a 7. Well that means that my reading of 8 digits is wrong. Well, looking again I reckon it must be 7251520 with the 4 I thought I could see just a figment of my imagination. I'll report it and see if I get any more information.

A taste of winter

This morning brought freezing temperatures and snow although the wintery feeling was only brief as by lunchtime it was already over zero again with rain - and this is how it is forecast to continue over xmas. A Blackbird (svarttrost) singing in the pitch black in the garden at 7am today was plainly very confused!

I had a couple of hours to do Oslo by public transport and started at the park at Marienlyst. This park is Collared Dove (tyrkerdue) central and held 15 today. It normally also holds large numbers of Common Gulls (fiskemåke) but today there were just 8 even though they were being fed as usual by the local old dears. There appear to be far fewer smaller gulls in Oslo this winter and in nearby Frognerpark there wasn’t a single one although 40 Herring Gulls (gråmåke)  was more than normal. They included 4 colour ringed birds, 3 of which I was able to read. I could only find details of two of the birds though: both were ringed locally with the only interesting information gleaned being that one, J5700, had been seen in Moss, 47km away, just 3 days ago.
Three female Teal (krikkand) amongst the Mallards (stokkand) would appear to be a new winter high and five Tufted Duck (toppand) are also attempting to overwinter.

Birding in Oslo at the moment would not be complete without a trip to the Botanical Gardens and a new day brought a new avian makeup. Fieldfares (gråtrost) had arrived in force with at least 60 eating berries. Apart from a handful of Blackbirds there was nothing rarer amongst them not even a Redwing (rødvingetrost). Greenfinches (grønnfink) were also back feeding on the berries as were at least 4 very vocal Hawfinches (kjernebiter) and a couple of Chaffinches (bokfink). The first crossbill I saw took me a while so sort out but was a female Common (grankorsnebb). She favoured feeding on the ground under a type of spruce where there were many fallen cones. Two Two-barreds (båndkorsnebb) were still around though and suddenly turned up in the berry tree. The bird that has disappeared is the grey female so it is the bright female and the male left. They yet again fed high in the tree before being scared by a young male Goshawk (hønsehauk) that put everything up as he came into land nearby. They then fed in a couple of different spruces before again returning to the favoured tree. Yet again they did not feel the need to come down for water/snow but I did see the female seemingly finding water amongst moss on a branch. At one stage a group of 7 Common Crossbills flew over calling and the 2 2BC flew up calling to join them but then quickly landed in a spruce whilst the others flew on.

young (1st CY) male Blackbird. Note the mostly dark bill and brown tinge to the flight feathers

aduløt male Blackbird. Note the orangey/yellow bill, bright eye ring and jet black plumage. Or is it an adult? Although obviously different to the bird pictured above this one does have dark smudges on the bill. Maybe it is just a far more advanced 1cy (born earlier in the year?). I took no pictures showing the flight feathers so can't be certain.

female Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb)

the same female Common Crossbill

and a female Two-barred Crossbill for comparison

Hawfinch (kjernebiter) - look at that bill!

female Two-barred Crossbill

male Two-barred Crossbill

Nasty

There is no other way to describe today than NASTY. The temperature has risen to +8C and with heavy rain this morning the snow has started melting big time but not before all paths and pavements become ice rinks. It didn’t get light enough to read a road sign until after 9am and became as dark again before 3pm and it wasn’t until noon that it was anything like acceptable light. My only outing today was to see how things were in the Botanical Gardens. Yet again, a new day and new weather conditions resulted in a complete change in the bird scene. Gone were concentrations of Hawfinches (kjernebiter) and Fieldfares (gråtroster) and even tits were hard to come by. Three Chaffinches (bokfink) were still finding enough sustenance and after not being present when I arrived, the three remaining Two Barred Crossbills (båndkorsnebb) appeared in their favoured tree and fed high up for a good 40 minutes before an alarm calling Blackbird scared them off. With it being so wet they did not need to drink during the time I was watching them and all the time stayed high in the tree and mostly silent. The three birds keep very close to each other and do so far more than I have experienced with other finches – quite why this is I am not so sure but perhaps they are aware that they are long from their own ‘hood and that they need to watch each others backs.

Yesterday we had 10 Bullfinches (dompap) in the garden both eating sunflower seeds and also eating seeds from a sycamore like tree we have. This is as far as I can remember a record garden count. I have seen pictures from Sweden of both Two-barred and Common Crossbills eating sunflower seeds so maybe the bullfinches will attract some of their distant cousins into the garden.

I took some pictures today but the light forced me to use 6400 ISO at F6.3 and at best a shutter speed of 1/200 sec.

the remaining male using his tail for balance as the branch was moving quite a lot in the wind

the greyer female looking even greyer in the poor light today

 

Crossbill calls

I am close to being tone deaf which results in an atrocious singing voice and also causes me to be oblivious to many of the subtleties of the Norwegian language much to my family’s amusement. In birding terms it means that I struggle to differentiate between some similar calls. On Friday I heard Common (grankorsnebb) and Two-barred Crossbill (båndkorsnebb) calling simultaneously and found the differences to be slight. Here I have compared the contact calls of both species.