Changeable seasons

Talk about contrasts. After Tuesday’s cold, wet autumnal weather yesterday ended up of the warm and sunny autumnal sort although snow could be seen on the hills north of Maridalen and further north there have been large amounts of snow.

Jules and I went walking in the forests of Lillomarka hoping for some nice taiga species such as Pine Grosbeak or Three-toed Pecker. We had to settle for Parrot Crossbill and Great Spotted Pecker but the walk was nice.

A lot of birds have cleared out now but in Maridalen there were still three Meadow Pipits.

Today started with no wind and fog but after lunch the fog lifted and it was blue skies again. I spent the foggy period at Fornebu which I had all to myself – no birders, no dog walkers, no joggers just me and a few birds. The Bearded Tits showed very well in the fog and there were 3 males and 2 females. I have always wondered whether the birds are already paired up during the autumn and winter but today’s observations suggested not. At one stage four of the birds flew to another part of the reedbed leaving a single male who started calling nervously. I believe he had been down on the ground when the other four flew and just missed the boat but this led me to believe that the other four birds were two pairs. However, when I later encountered the birds then I saw three males and a female together with another bird calling from about 50 metres away. This then led me to believe that the birds weren’t paired as why would the other female not have been with her mate?

Other birds I had at Fornebu were three calling Water Rails, a Jack Snipe and 4 Common Snipe. Robins also were very noticeable and were I expect migrant birds on their way out of the county but I had no warblers or pipits and just a handful of thrushes.

It was foggy at Fornebu today

but Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) brighten things up

nice footwork from this female

all five of today's birds - 3 males and 2 females

snow above Maridalen yesrerday

female Parrot Crossbill (furukorsnebb) 

male and female Parrot

male Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) in Maridalen today. This bird was singing. Note the smaller bill than on the Parrots

Oslo Island birding

It’s all a bit autumny at the moment with rain, northerly winds and a cold dampness in the air that does not do much to increase your desire to be outside. But it is exactly these sorts of conditions that one does need to brave if you want to see anything exciting. Jules Bell was out on Gressholmen yesterday and found two Red-necked Grebes which is a very good local bird. I persuaded him to join me today for a thorough visit to not just Gressholmen but also Lindøya and Nakkholmen. We listed up our expectations for the day. Mine included Mugimaki, Pallas’s Warbler, Hume’s Warbler and Firecrest. Jules who has now birded Oslo enough times to know where the expectations should lie settled with Rock Pipit.

Passerines were not very cooperative and there were no warblers, chats or pipits of any description with a flyover Snow Bunting the absolute highlight. Waterbirds were slightly better. The two Red-necked Grebes, an adult and a stripy juvenile, were still present and gave good scope views. We also had a few Common and Velvet Scoter, Guillemot and a single Red-throated Diver but not the large numbers of sea duck that I had hoped might have turned up. We did have some waders though with two Purple Sandpipers and a late Oystercatcher. So, my expectation may not have been met it wasn’t too bad.

We had a couple of Common Seals and foxes on both Gressholmen and Lindøya. We saw a lot of droppings on Gressholmen and it is clear that the animal was eating a lot of rowan berries and one must wonder how long it can survive on them.

distance and light did not make it easy to photograph the Red-necked Grebes (gråstrupedykker) but this should count as a record shot. The juvenile is on the left with a stripy cheek and red neck whereas as the adult is in winter plumage and no longer has a red neck.

2 Purple Sandpipers (fjæreplytt)

Maridalen Great Grey Shrike

Yesterday was blessed with an overnight frost that left frozen puddles and a fantastic warm sunlight in the morning. Birds though were not to be found and despite the perfect viewing conditions I found nothing of interest at Fornebu – no Beardies, no rare phylloscs, not even a Muckiminger.

Today was cloudy and windy and to be honest didn’t really have many more birds but a Great Grey Shrike showed very well in Maridalen and there were lots of birds on feeders both in the garden and in Maridalen.

I have never before noticed these"teeth" on the upper mandible of a Great Grey Shrike.

the black lores and bill seem very adult like but the barring on the underparts is a definite sign of this bird being a juvenile. Looking at pictures I see nothing to suggest that it has not been the same bird that has been seen on and off in MAridalen since 18 Sept even though when I saw it on 3 Oct I was sure it was an adult

the barring is very obvious here. Extreme  cases of barring can give the bird a pink look which might cause confusion

this bird has very little white in the secondaries (nearly none) which matches my pictures from 18 Sept 

the two Collared Doves (tyrkerdue) that are in the garden daily now

a curious female Teal (krikkand) at Fornebu yesterday. A Water Rail was calling right behind it but wouldn't show itself

and some grainy photos from the feeding station in Maridalen today

Crested Tit (toppmeis)

Nuthatch (spettmeis)

Willow Tit (granmeis) - compare ot the Marsh Tit from a few days ago

Willow Tit

a different Willow Tit (this one is carry bling) but note that it look to have a pale spot on the upper mandible which is supposed to be only a feature of Marsh Tit. I assume this is just a light effect but shows that this "foolproof" feature needs to be used carefully

Sun and geese

In glorious warm, sunny autumn weather I went out east hoping there might be some congregations of geese and perhaps some Bearded Tits or raptors to find.

Kallaksjøen felt like I was at the WWT Welney Reserve because there were so many noisy wildfowl at close range. There were a good 1200 Greylags and amongst them 18 Pink-foot, 3 Canadas and two Tundra (rossicus) Bean Geese. 180 Teal had the company of a Pintail and there were 9 Whooper Swans. The video gives a bit of the feeling.

I found large flocks of Greylags at Hemnessjøen and Hellesjøvannet but they revealed no scarcer cousins in their ranks and the very extensive reedbeds at both these locations seemed to be Bearded free. Hellesjøvannet held very few ducks with for example not a single Goldeneye but 9 Pochard were at relatively close range.

Raptors were limited to just two Common Buzzards and I only had two Great Grey Shrikes.

Kallaksjøen WWT Reserve viewed from its luxury mobile hide 

Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) with Greylags

Two Tundra (rossicus) Bean Geese - note the orange bill

2 male and 2 female Pochards (taffeland) 

3 females and 4 males. The female on the right was a lot darker (sign of age?)

Marsh Tit !!

I wouldn’t normally employ the use of exclamation marks on conjunction with Marsh Tit but today warrants them – after 16 years of searching I saw one in Oslo! The species is a scarce resident in many parts of southern Norway and occurs in Akershus county within 10km of the centre of Oslo but for some reason appears to have no regular population in Oslo. There are 1 or 2 reports every year but I have not seen any that are documented and with the notorious difficulty of separating this species from the far commoner (in Norway at least) Willow Tit a number of the records will no doubt be misidentifications.

The bird I had today was at Østensjøvannet which accounts for more than half of the reports and historic records suggest that maybe the species has been resident in odd years but fails to establish itself permanently. Usually I identify Willow and Marsh tits by call without resorting to the small differences in plumage but today’s bird took a (surprisingly) long time to call and I had actually got around to identifying it on plumage in the meantime. The pale cutting edge to the upper mandible was visible on the back of the camera and the general warmer tones, lack of a wing panel and small black bib were enough to clinch it.

Østensjøvannet held very few waterbirds due to high water levels and a lack of aquatic vegetation this year but a single Shoveler was a good find.

I had started the day sea gazing at Hulvik where I hoped that Ophelia would resort in some seabirds but the winds didn’t quite make it so far north so there was nothing of any note to see on the sea.

Marsh Tit (løvmeis) - my first ever in Oslo 

the pale patch at the base of teh upper mandible is clearly visible in this picture

note how the bird appears to have a noticebale pale wing pannel in the left picture but not in the right

one of the pale 1st winter Herring Gulls  that we see in Oslo (and Bergen...) which often result in discussion as to whether there are some Glaucous Gull genes involved

this 1st winter Herring Gull has moulted a lot of mantle feathers but I'm not sure why some are so dark

Shoveler (skjeand)

MUGIMAKI u I did not see

Last week I got a message from Kjell that he and Geir were going to go back to Værøy for another week as the weather forecast was promising and would I also like to go? Well, Mrs OB is a VERY understanding wife but I myself could not justify extravagance of another trip.

The weather forecast subsequently changed negatively and after two very quiet days I think Kjell was ruing his impulsiveness. That was until this morning. I was waiting at the barbers for a short back and sides when Kjell sent me this picture:

A MUGIMAKI Flycatcher on Værøy although I must admit to not being able to recognise it myself when sent the picture... (PHOTO: KJELL MJØLSNES)

While obviously rare I couldn't put a name to it and had to ask a friend and was pleased to find out its given name is one that oozes cosmic mind f*ckness – MUGIMAKI flycatcher!!!! This far eastern bird has to my knowledge only been seen three times before in Europe/WP but the British Rarities Committee considered their only record so implausible that they refused to accept it as a wild spontaneous bird meaning only two previous records are considered “good”. So Geir (he found it), Kjell and Værøy have a Norwegian first and a third for the WP on their hands and I, as usual, have to control my jealousy (reminds me of my brief appearance on a Norwegian TVprogram looking at jealousy and rightly thinking birders would be a good example).

My Oslo birding today rather pales into insignificance but Grey-headed Woodpecker (unfortunately heard only but I now feel confident to ID based on call after more experience with this species) and a Rough-legged Buzzard in Maridalen were good birds.

Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk) heading purposefully east in Maridalen

one and a half Sparrowhawks also in Maridalen

I started feeding up in the garden a few days ago and already have a good flock of House and Tree Sparrows. These have attracted a smart male Brambling and more excitingly a Collared Dove. This is, I think, my first record actually on the deck in the garden of a species which has become rare in Oslo (I wouldn't be surprised if there are less than 50 birds left in the city).

Collared Dove (tyrkerdue) 

male Brambling (bjørkefink)

Tristis

I made way down to Fornebu once the rush hour toll fee had stopped ;-) and almost the first bird I heard in Storøykilen was Bearded Tit. The birds were making a lot of noise and sitting high in the reeds. Very soon after I got my eye on them 8 birds erupted up into the sky and flew around for a minute or so before plunging down again. At least one bird was still calling in the reedbed at this time. After a while I decided to head to Koksa to see if there were any birds in Koksa. Whilst walking there I heard Beardies flying high above me and failed to find any in Koksa or later in Storøykilen so it looks like they used the good weather to leave but it would not surprise me if the same or other birds turn up again later as there are not many reedbeds to choose between around Oslo.

From the reeds in Koksa I heard the special sound of a tristis (Siberian) Chiffchaff and got to see the bird subsequently quite well. It had a quite pronounced wing bar which made it a quite distinctive bird. This is now the third tristis I have seen in Oslo and Akershus compared to just a single Yellow-browed Warbler which is a ratio that in no way reflects the national observations of both species where Yellow-browed is a far commoner bird. I also heard (but didn’t see) a Chiffchaff calling with sweeoo call which has been reported a lot in Norway this autumn and can really get you excited for a short while.

I played the calls and songs of “normal” and Sibe Chiffchaff to the Sibe Chaff and only got a response when playing the song of Sibe which can be observed on the video. It responded by wing shivering and by making a quiet sound which reminded me of the sound you sometimes hear at the beginning of a normal Chiffchaffs song. Otherwise though it did not respond vocally to sound provocation.

Tristis (Siberian ) Chiffchaff in neutral light

here with sunligh behind the bird 

8 Bearded Tits (3 males & 5 females) shortly before erupting

this male remained in the reeds but was very vocal