Nocturnal birds

I’ve been having late nights listening to all the amazing birds in Maridalen plus days in the field and have taken so many hundreds of photos and video that I have not been able to get round to editing things and posting on the blog but rain today has given me an excuse to sit in front of the computer.

On Monday night I had an incredible meeting with one of the two singing Corncrakes in Maridalen. It was singing very close to the road when I arrived at 23:45 and eventually showed itself briefly. That I was able to take some video and photos at that time of night is I think impressive enough so you will have to forgive the shaky cameraman. It was still going strong at 1am less than 5 metres from the road and I was able to see the grass moving as the bird moved but did not see the bird.

I have been back during daylight hoping for a repeat encounter but they have been silent during the day although at night are singing constantly. I did see one today though in a very interesting manner. I was watching a small area of open ground in the Lapwing field where there was a single adult and large young Lapwing when two birds ran out of the grass. A Corncrake was chasing a Skylark and both ran across the ground before the Skylark took flight. Quite what this was about I don’t know but could suggest that the Corncrake is breeding? PC also heard a call a couple of nights ago which matches recordings supposedly of a female.

In the video there is also an interesting call at the very beginning before the first crexes. I heard this a couple of times in the field and thought there also was an animal in the field before realising it was coming from the crake. I believe this to be the following call described in BWP: “2) Growling-mew call. Uttered by ♂-with bill closed; somewhat like grunting squeal of young pigs, used during sexual display and aggressive encounters. Variations less frequently used; described as 'growling squeal', 'grunt and whistle', 'purring grunt and whistle'—also separate grunts and whistling sounds”.

My best ever picture of Corncrake (åkerrikse). The picture is uncropped taken at 23:44.  370mm, f/6.3, 1/6 s, ISO-6400 - amazing that it has come out so light and sharp given the light and shutter speed!

cropped version of same picture. Note the red wing

 

Lapwing (vipe) youngster and adult two seconds after a Corncrake ran over the mud chasing a Skylark (sanglerke)!

This year is the best ever for nocturnal birds in Maridalen although records from elsewhere in Southern Norway don’t suggest any special arrival. In addition to the Corncrakes there have been reported at least 2 Quail although birds are probably moving around so difficult to know how many, there are Marsh Warblers at 4 locations including breeding at one plus of course there is the Blyth’s Reed. We haven’t had any locustella warblers yet but there is still time (in 2012 we had both Grasshopper and River Warbler).  This video features the songs of two different Marsh Warblers plus the Blyth's Reed.

Blyth's Reed Warbler:

The Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger)

in full song

Note that the bird has a number of tail feathers in growth (lost them rather than moult?) and that the new ones appear to have pale tips

Marsh Warblers: 

today's new Marsh Warbler singing close to the Blyth's Reed. Here doin its best Blyth's Reed "banana posture" impression

the bird at Bakken which is a very classic looking individual

 

 

Summer?

A quick trip in the morning to Maridalen in hot sunshine revealed the Blyth’s Reed singing strongly but nearly invisibly in its favoured bush plus Marsh Warblers at two locations. An Icterine Warbler was again singing strongly suggesting it is a new arrival but Rosefinches were silent suggesting that egg laying has commenced. A Snipe “drumming” overhead was unexpected in such weather at this time of the year.

With the heat today and relative lack of activity from the commoner birds it does feel like we have moved into summer and left spring behind.

At the Lapwing (and now Corncrake) field a fox was hunting in the long grass by jumping up and down and surprisingly there were no adult Lapwings mobbing it which I think mut be a bad sign with regards the survival of youngsters. On Saturday I saw there were at least two quite large youngsters but today all I saw was two adults. There could of course be many birds hiding in the grass but I fear the fox (and the valleys cats) have taken their toll.

the Blyth's Reed (busksanger) is very skulky although allows close approach

spot the Blyth's

the Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) on the other hand sits in the open but does not allow close approach

when in the shade, and in a bush, the Marsh can look Blyth's like

 

Oslo guiding and "night singer" magic

I have had a weekend of guiding. On Saturday I had the very pleasurable company of William Sutherland, Professor in Conservation Biology at my alma mater, Cambridge University. Now if only I could turn back the clock and chose an interesting useful subject to study like that instead of Economics.... Bill's email to me had been titled "Mad Idea" this being because Bill was landing at Gardemoen at 1230 and had a meeting starting downtown Oslo 1700 and he wondered if he could get some birding in between these two events. Well it wasn't a mad idea but definitely rather ambitious.
After picking Bill up just after 1300 we headed first for the Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) pair in Nittedal. Both birds were out on the lake which I took as a rather disappointing sign that breeding has failed – let’s hope not.
After this it was of course Maridalen as this offers the best chance of a variety of species. In the middle of a hot afternoon it is always going to be hard going but a fine male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink) was a tick for Bill plus we had a number of the commoner birds. One interesting bird was an acro warbler. Found the previous night and also seen earlier that morning it was reported as a Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) but the one picture showing not much more than the head had me excited. Questioning the observers I heard that the song was a bit odd which had got me even more excited. Unfortunately the bird did not make a noise for Bill and I but the glimpses we had of it in the undergrowth and in flight were of a grey toned bird which just increased my excitement - there was a good chance this was Maridalen’s first Blyth’s Reed (busksanger)!

I decided that I would make a night round in Maridalen but started at 2130 as I hoped to see the warbler in good light. Per Christian joined me and after hearing one of the two Corncrakes (åkerrikse) that PC had discovered earlier in the week at Skjerven gård we got to the warbler site (which has traditionally held breeding Marsh Warblers). Between 2130 and 2350 we heard just one brief snatch of song which sounded promising but did not see the bird and elicited no response from playback of either species. Then at 2350 the bird started to sing carefully but after about 15 minutes was in full song and here there was no doubt – Maridalen’s first Blyth’s Reed Warbler was a fact. I must admit to feeling quite chuffed that I had suspected the real ID from the one picture I saw J

Not only that but we were also listening to Maridalen’s first ever Quail (vaktel) which had been first heard earlier in the day. This was nearly all too good to be true! The four Tawny Owl (kattugle) youngsters could be heard begging for food, Woodcock (rugde) were roding and on the way out of the valley we heard both Corncrakes singing. A truly memorable night.

 

After a bit over 4 hours sleep I was up early on Sunday to guide Juan from Colombia via Switzerland for the morning. I naturally asked if Blyth’s Reed Warbler would be of interest and it was so became our first stop. The bird was singing loudly when we arrived from a clearly favoured bush but despite it being a small bush the bird was difficult to see but I did manage some pictures. After this we searched hard for the Tawny Owls but failed completely to find them. Common Rosefinches though showed well and surprisingly a Marsh Warbler sang from some lush vegetation in a damp corner of a field and showed well. It was good to be able to compare the songs of Blyth’s Reed and Marsh so close after each other. The jizz and colouration of these two birds is also noticeably if subtly different. Nearby an Icterine Warbler (gulsanger) was singing constantly  - there seems to have been a new and late arrival of this species – and it was also interesting to be able to compare this song to that of the two acro warblers as it is a potential confusion species. Leaving Maridalen we stopped at Østensjøvannet where the Slav Grebe showed well as well as Rusty the escaped Ruddy Shelduck. Yet again Oslo delivers!

Blyth's Reed Warbler (busksanger) - not easy to photograph.

here in sunlight and notice how the colour of the upperparts becomes warmer

note the long supercilium extending behind the eye again a good ID character



The relatively short primary projection is a good ID character. It is also possible to see that the wing tip is made up of a 2.3 primaries whereas the spacing between the primaries is more obvious on a Marsh Warbler

Masrsh Warbler - difficult to describe but this bird has a different jizz - it is plumper and kinder faced



here the pale feather tips are a good ID feature of spring Marsh Warblers. In this shot one can also see the P3 is the longest primary feather

Marsh Warbler - note also the long primary projection and dark centres to the tertial feathers



Blyths Reed Warbler (left( and Marsh Warbler (right)

 

no bird visible but there is a treecreepers nest behind the cracked bark

 

Struggling with Hedmark

It can be a bad idea leaving Oslo but two days in Hedmark was going to deliver me some great results (the plan).

First stop yesterday was to refind the Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk) from my last visit. I had worked out how to get up to where I saw it and it looked to be a walk that wouldn't risk my still dodgy knee too much. I came to the top and found the stone where I had pictured the bird. There was some droppings and pellets but not much so this stone clearly was not used that much. I stayed for 2 hours but had no sight nor sound of the bird nor could I see any possible nest site so it looks like the bird I saw was just resting there and once at the top I realised that there were plenty of other suitable looking escarpments in the area. Well that was a real shame but my knee survived and I had good views of a male Ring Ouzel which also sang a bit. When I got to the top I took my camera out of my backpack and turned it on to get the settings just right for flight photography but nothing happened. I put a new battery in still nothing. Was the camera broken? No but the SD card cover was not closed properly but hang on there was no card. Not again!!! How idiotic can I be? Luckily this time I did have a spare card with me but it was full and I had to spend time deleting loads of pictures.

Could anything worse happen? Oh yes most definitely. My plan for the end of the day was to sleep at Nekmyrene where I would awake to lekking Ruff, displaying Broad-billed Sandpipers and Red-necked Phalaropes. After a looong drive there I discovered the road was still not open. A call to phone number at the barrier revealed it was to be opened at 4pm TOMORROW. This spring really is late.

What to do? I had been driving all day was tired and had hardly seen a bird. I decided to head to a mountain road over the border in Oppland county which I knew would be open and where 5 years ago I had seen Red-necked Phalaropes (svømmesnipe). And at 2125 my day was saved. Feast your eyes on these pictures taken in the evening sun.

female (the more colourful sex) Red-necked Phalarope (svømmesnipe)

the male - slightly less colourful

male again

and the female again

After 5 hours sleep in the car I awoke to a cloudy sky and the phalaropes on the water outside my bedroom window.  A couple of hours in the area revealed 7 or maybe even 9 phalaropes which is a good sized colony for a species that seems to be getting harder to find. They are an incredibly confiding species and again allowed themselves to be photographed at very close range – I took so many acceptable photos and video that they will warrant their own post later. Singing Lapland Bunting and Bluethroat were a joy to behold and Whimbrel, Wood Sandpiper, Golden Plover and Common Scoter were also in the area. A single Kestrel was the only raptor I saw although there was a very pale hungry fox being mobbed by Redshanks and a Whimbrel chased away a Crow and a Crow chased sway a Raven. So predators are around and in a year with little or no lemmings it is baby birds that will be eaten.

After all this excitement I went looking for Siberian Tits (lappmeis). This species has a very small population in Mid/Southern Norway and there is very little information or published records of these birds. This was my fifth attempt over the years and was doomed to end like all the others. I did have Willow, Great and Crested Tits but nothing from Siberia. I wonder if climate change is affecting this relic outlying population and they are perhaps losing out to the other tits who may be increasing in numbers.

I drove a lot these two days but fantastic scenery and the Red-necked Phalaropes made it all worthwhile.

male Bluethroat (blåsturpe)

male Lapland Bunting (lappspurv)

House Martin prospecting a nest site at 1011m

Merlin (dvergfalk)

male Ring Ouzel (ringtrost)

the mountains of Rondane

still ice on the lakes at 1050m

Whimbrel (småspove) by he hotel

angry Whimbrel

Willow Tits (granmeis) were common where I had hoped to find Siberian Tit

A selfie of the Oslobirder leaning against the stone where the Gyr Falcon was sat a couple of weeks ago

Great Oslo guiding

I was guiding Len and May from the USA today with a focus on photography and we had a very successful day! Østensjøvannet provided a myriad of close encounters with the usual suspects and hundreds of pictures were taken. We had a very close encounter with the Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) that was calling and appeared interested in a passing Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker) – presumably confirmation that it is alone and not mated as I previously thought may be the case. Most Tufted Ducks (toppand) do not seem to have started breeding yet with pairs still out on the water but some clearly started nesting a while ago as a female had 4 small youngsters and interestingly five adult males with her who all seemed to be helping to look out for the youngsters (a Lesser Black-backed Gull tried its luck). Maybe the female had been a bit promiscuous and as a result had the help of five males who all thought they were dad?

Whilst enjoying a song off between three Blackcaps (munk) we discovered a Wren’s (gjerdesmett) nest which was a ball of moss hanging from a crack in a rock – a fantastic construction in a bizarre and open locality. Reed Warblers (rørsanger) showed very well but Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) of which there is now a pair did not show openly. Nearby though two male Whitethroats (tornsanger) were fighting for territory and gave great views.

In Maridalen two red male Common Rosefinches (rosenfink) were going around together, a pair of Pied Flycatchers (svarthvit fluesnapper) showed well, two young Goshawks (hønsehauk) were surprisingly well grown and the four Whooper Swan (sangsvane) cygnets were being well cared for by their parents. And that was just a fraction of what we saw – Oslo is at is best right now.

Slavonian Grebe (horndykker) at Østensjøvannet

Tufted Ducks many helping hands for a brood of 4 youngsters (only 1 in shot)

singing male Whitethroat (tornsanger)

Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

Wren's (gjerdesmett) nest

Goshawk youngster stretching its wings

 

two heads