Record late Tree Pipit

It is getting colder and colder and with snow forecast soon I changed to winter tyres today and now feel ready for anything! That does not mean I cannot be surprised though. Today, in Maridalen I visited the field below the farm at Nes to see if there were still any Meadow Pipits left (there has been a small flock hanging on here) and I did hear one which could well be my last local bird this autumn as snow will undoubtedly push them off. As I walked over the stubble field a bird flew up silently with white outer tail feathers and whilst it was definitely a pipit it did not strike me as being a Meadow. It landed in a nearby tree and when I got the binoculars on it it did resemble a Meadow in general plumage but still did not feel like one. I was able to walk quite close to the tree and see it well and it was looking straight at me showing a fairly well marked face, warm breast and strong bill and I briefly entertained the idea it could be a Olive-backed (surely the only other option so late in the year?) but when I first saw it in the tree the rest of the plumage was not right and as it moved around in the tree I saw that no it definitely wasn’t an OBP but neither was it a Meadow.

So what was it?? A Tree Pipit obviously but this is extremely late. There is only one other October record for Oslo (9 Oct) and my latest Oslo record is 21 September. Nationally there are only 30 records of Tree Pipit on or after 26 October of which only 3 are documented with a photo and looking at the records many other should be considered as uncertain (to put it politely).

I normally ID Tree Pipit based on the noise it makes rather than its plumage. Most pipits call in flight, either when migrating over or when scared up, and this nails the ID as the call is so much different from the very similarly plumaged Meadow Pipit. I would normally say that an out of season Tree Pipit would need to be heard and seen (seen to ensure it is not an OBP which has a very similar call) but there is one structural feature that nails a Tree Pipit vs. a Meadow Pipit and that is the hind claw which is much shorter on Tree Pipit. This is not a feature I would never normally look at but today I did and my pictures clearly show it. Plumage wise the very thin streaks on the flanks are also a near certain character of Tree. Strange it never called though.

The Great Grey Shrike showed well and the Razorbill is still on the lake and was frequently diving for food so would seem to be thriving.

 

Earlier in the day I had visited Nordre Øyeren where 18 Taiga Bean Geese with Whooper Swans and Canada Geese was a good sighting and a Bar-headed Goose was a year tick. I had three species of raptor: White-tailed Eagle, Sparrowhawk and Goshawk which are the first BOPs I have seen for quite a while. Usually in the autumn there are a few Rough-legged Buzzards to be seen migrating south but not this year, at least for me.

my first view of silent pipit after it flew up into a tree. The face pattern immediately did not look right for Meadow

here we see the short back claw and very thin stripes on the flanks which are diagnostic for Tree Pipit (trepiplerke)

Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

at least 10 (of 18) Taiga Bean Geese behind Canada Geese

including one with a Greylag Goose like bill

distant plastic

female Bullfinch (dompap)

and her mate

Pygmy Owl

It is now officially late autumn as the first Pygmy Owls have left the forest and turned up in Maridalen. Yesterday I had two different birds both of which were giving their autumnal territorial song which attracted angry passerines and allowed me to see them well.

A Common Scoter on the lake was also another definite late autumn sign but a sign of early rather than late autumn was a Common Wheatear. This bird had been found the previous afternoon  by Kjetil J on the edge of the city in Sørkedalen and has he didn’t have binoculars on him he wondered if I would be able to check it out to confirm that it was just a Common (Northern) Wheatear and not something rarer. It was luckily still present the next morning was indeed nothing rarer but it is by nearly two weeks the latest Wheatear ever reported in Oslo. It looked healthy and frequently flew around but often opened its bill as though to burp so may have some issues that are stopping it continuing migrating to Africa.

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

a classic view of a Pygmy Owl

the Northern Wheatear (steinskvett) burping

Common Scoter (svartand)

and the Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in Maridalen seems to be finding a regular spot to hunt

Cattle Egret twitch

This weekend has been windy, wet and cold and this morning I felt in need of some birding therapy so what better than to combine a twitch with giving Jr some driving practice? A Cattle Egret has been seen about an hour from Oslo recently and when news came through of it being found again today then I thought what the heck. I have had a chance to see the species in Norway before and closer to home but was never tempted to but today I was feeling twitchy.

Jr drove the 50 minutes to the reported location very smoothly but I could not find the bird when we arrived. We drove around the area a bit and then returned to the original spot where the farmer was now ploughing the field and there was a small white bird following the tractor and scoffing worms! Exactly how twitching should be – a slight bit of drama to raise the stakes but then the bird seen well.

Cattle Egret (kuhegre)

the wet soil stuck to the birds feet

Regular Oslo birding this week

Birding in Oslo isn’t just Sibes and owls and there are more normal birds to look at and enjoy. A large arrival of Waxwings is brewing although so far most birds I have seen have been flocks hurrying over. There seems to be lots of berries around though so once the birds settle down then I am sure there will be lots of urban birds to enjoy.

Maridalen has been rather quiet with a Great Grey Shrike appearing in many different parts of the valley signalling that food is difficult to find. On the lake there have been quiet a few wind blown Guillemots and amongst them I picked out a Razorbill which is only the third record in the Dale. Nocturnal trips have revealed a few Woodcock although numbers are declining with birds presumably continuing their southbound migration.

I have been out looking for owls twice more but with disappointing results. A trip with Jr and the Beast gave two Tawny Owls but a trip with Jack drew a complete blank which lends some weight to the saying that “a Jack a day keeps the birds away” 😉

Østensjøvannet is normally a productive place in October and there are lots of birds this year but it is a very different make up to the last few years when there has been a lot of water weed which has attracted three figure flocks of Coot, Mute Swan and Wigeon. This year there seems to have been a complete die back of the water weed and the lake is nearly free of the above species with for example only single figures of Coot! Fish eating species however are in higher numbers especially Herons and Cormorants. The commonest birds though are geese which are feeding on a stubble feed and in total there are close to 1000 Barnacle, Greylag and Canada Geese although surprisingly enough nothing scarce amongst them.

Fornebu is very quiet with visits this week revealing nothing of note with colder temperatures and overnight frosts having pushed warblers and pipits onwards.

A trip to Årnestangen was also disappointing although 9 Taiga Bean Geese with Greylags was as always a nice encounter and a small flock of Twite was my first of the autumn.

this young Goshawk (hønsehauk) was a delight at Østensjøvannet today and was respectfully escorted out of the area by the local Hooded Crows. Its large size indicates it is a female

a Jackdaw (kaie) also got in on the act

when the geese at Østensjøvannet take to the wing it is an impressive sight and sound

The only Mute Swans (knoppsvane) are breeding birds that haven't left yet. The young in this family are still far from full grown and seem to have developed slowly due to the shortage of food. In addition there are 3 orphaned young (the dad was found dead and mum just disappeared) which are also not yet able to fly and a single adult that had apparantly crashed with overhead wires

a redhead Smew (lappfiskand) - one of two at Østensjøvannet

Twite (bergisisk) at Årnestangen

a Razorbill (alke) on Maridalsvannet

and the valley's Great Grey Shrike (varsler) hovering as it looks for food

a Tawny Owl (kattugle) perched on a wire in the Dale. 

and a Woodcock (rugde)

last week I sea gazed at Krokstrand. There wasn't much to see (what did I really expect) except for a flock of 95 Kittikwakes (krykje) that suddenly appeared heading north at height