Hawkie hawkie

Regular readers of this blog will know that it is unusual for me to post anything at the weekend but today has to be an exception. The morning was very slow after a rare evening out yesterday and whilst showering just before midday my phone plinged with a rare bird message. There was hard stuff available in Oslo and in Maridalen no less! Now, you would have thought that after visiting two dealers yesterday that I would be sated but that is never the case with Hawkie especially when it is available on your local patch. Five minutes later I was clothed and in the car.

The bird was very easy to find as it sat on top of a tree close to the beaver dam. This area is the only area in Maridalen with old school “classic” Hawk Owl habitat of an old forest clearing with dotted trees remaining. This bird was therefore the same as yesterdays in that it shunned roadsides and telegraph poles and wires. As I had, in my haste, only put on shoes and not boots I was unable to get close to the bird as the snow was too deep but I hope the bird will hang around into next week. There has been a real recent upsurge in records around Oslo indicating a new invasion is occurring and I doubt this is the same bird as was present at the end of November. I just hope there is enough food around for them to remain into the spring.

Hawk Owl (haukugle) in Maridalen. Taken with 150mm zoom

Using the 500mm zoom

Something for the weekend

With the weekend coming up it was time to visit my dealer to secure some of the hard stuff. I found two dealers today but it appears something has spooked them and they were keeping a very low profile. No hanging around street lamps in a brazen manner today. Both the dealers I found were sitting on top of spruce trees a couple of hundred metres from the road in terrain that did not allow a closer approach. It was almost as though they did not want to be found and the Hawkie they had on offer was of low grade and could only be provided in small doses.

Hawk Owl (haukugle) in atypical habitat Kroer,Ås

another Hawk Owl in atypical habitat Nordre Furu, Frogn

I also had a single Great Grey Shrike (varsler) and a Little Grebe (dvergdykker) at Drøbak. The grebe did an amazing disappearing act on me. After seeing it in open water it swam to a floating jetty which it pressed itself up against. It then dived and I could not for the life of me relocate it. I wonder if it actually surfaced under the jetty?

Little Grebe (dvergdykker) just before it did a disappearing act

An enigma

avian porn

Enigmatic is a word that I own in my vocabulary (if I remember correctly it came into my possession in 1998) but it is saved for very special occasions. Today I have taken that word out, given it a good polish and am ready to use it again.

With sunny weather and a few minus degrees forecast for today I decided to walk around Maridalen. As my walks through the forest often produce very little whereas when I drive I find all manner of good things I decided on a circular walk on the minor roads. It all started a bit slowly and at the pork feeding station a film crew had taken over the whole area so there were no birds to see here. I stopped frequently to listen and had my eyes peeled but there were no large finches to be seen (not even Bullfinches). After two and a half hours when I was nearly back to the car (sound familiar) I heard a Bullfinch (dompap) and then 100 metres ahead of me a large finch flew over the road.  No alarm bells rang at this stage but when two more birds flew over I knew that I was in luck. Six Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit) flew over the road from one spruce tree to another. I positioned myself by the tree and looked and listened. It took a while to see even a single bird in the dense tree but eventually I was able to see a few birds. They were incredibly quiet and if I hadn’t seen them in flight I could have walked past without noticing them.  I watched them in the same tree from 11.48 until 12.13 – a total of 25 minutes in one tree. It was clear that there were more than the six birds I had seen fly in and I estimated there to be 12. When they finally flew out (after having given the “we are about to move on” whistle) a total of 25 flew out. How can such a large colourful bird remain hidden in the same tree for 25 minutes and then suddenly fly out to reveal a flock of 25 birds?

Pine Grosbeak must qualify to have the adjective enigmatic placed before it! THE ENIGMATIC PINE GROSBEAK is without doubt one of my favourite birds and I can’t get enough of them. They have now been present in Maridalen since 29 October and this is the 10^th time I have seen them. They are not easy to find but do reward perseverance.

I fired off about 230 pictures in reasonable light but they were always in the top third of the tree so never came that close and very few pictures were any good. Also I only saw one red male although I must admit to finding the orange young males to be even smarter.

male Pine Grosbeak nipping off shoots from a spruce tree

female Pine Grosbeaks

when they are feeding they are always stretching which can result in much wing flapping

these two are both young males I think due to orangey colouring

a shoot succesfully nipped off the tree and about to be eaten

looking for food

this bird is a definite young male with the orange head contrasting with the grey body

a young male Pine Grosbeak stretching as far as he can for a shoot

Later in the day I tried to find if there were any Med Gulls at Marienlyst (where a bird overwintered last winter). I threw out bread and 80 Common Gulls (fiskemåke) gathered over me but they were very wary and none came down to take the bread whilst I was there. I think they only trust old ladies and believe that men with binoculars are likely to try to put a ring around their leg. Oslo’s Collared Doves (tyrkerdue) were present at their regular wintering locality with 19 birds counted. This species is becoming very scarce in Norway now and the food they find in this park in the winter is probably what keeps them going in Oslo.

At Bygdøy a couple of Long-tailed Ducks (havelle) on the sea were a very good Oslo bird but no grebes, divers or white-winged gulls to find.

At least 5 Hawk Owls were seen in Akershus, close to Oslo, today (three being previously reported birds) so the invasion is far from over. After a few days of fog today clear skies and sunshine presumably prompted a lot of sitting exposed and soaking up the rays.

Ribbehauk

Birding today was limited to a whistle stop Tour de Maridalen. Only sighting of note was an immature male Goshawk (hønsehauk) feeding on the side of pork. I saw it from about 50m away flapping its wings to keep on the meat but as I came closer and tried to take a picture it flew off. The passerines in the area didn't seem scared by its presence as Bullfinches (dompap), tits and a Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett) appeared immediately it left.

Water Pipits and Vestfold

Water Pipits (vannpiplerke) are very interesting birds in that they are the only European bird I can think of that migrates north in winter. They breed in the mountains of central Europe and winter by wetlands and sometimes coasts in lowland Europe (both north and south of the breeding grounds). They are also a very tricky species to identify and were until fairly recently treated as a subspecies of Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke), indeed in the authoratitive Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP) from 1988 it says, under Field Characters: “Rock and Water Pipit groups separable in adult breeding plumage but often not so at other times”. Water Pipit is a rarity in Norway with no more than a couple of records annually normally of birds associating with Rock Pipits on sandy beaches where they can find insects amongst piles of rotting seaweed. I have never seen Water Pipit in Norway and I must admit to being slightly sceptical to some records as I believe that the variability in litoralis Rock Pipit is greater than is generally accepted. The Rock Pipit I saw 7 November is a good example of a very pale Rock Pipit showing many characters of Water. Today was therefore a good opportunity for me to see Water Pipit side-by-side with litoralis Rock Pipit.

Two Water Pipits were reported on Sunday from Nevlungstranda, Mølen in Vestfold which at nearly two hours drive from home is right at the edge of my self-imposed limit for regular birding trips. Today I only managed to find a single bird with certainty amongst 12 Rock Pipits (20 were recorded on Saturday). When I first arrived around 0930 the sun had yet to rise over the horizon although the light was good. This meant that I could watch the pipits in a neutral light. I found the pipits quite easily feeding amongst the boulders and seaweed and the third bird I saw was clearly a Water Pipit. It’s underparts were very white and it stood out like a sore thumb.

Water Pipit on the left with a Rock Pipit on the right. The colour difference is very clear in this picture which is taken in a neutral light

close up of the Water Pipit (vannpiplerke)

After the sun rose it became a bit more difficult. The birds became wary plus the warm, low winter light made judging colours challenging. A Rock Pipit bird with the sun on it could suddenly appear to have very white underparts whereas the upperparts could have a warm brown tinge which is supposed to be one of the features of water pipit. However, with good views the Water Pipit could be picked out.

Water Pipit in sunlight.

Whilst not the best picture this is the best for seeing the main ID feature of Water Pipit. This pictures shows the rufous brown (nutty brown) rump of Water Pipit. Note also the white outer-tail feathers, white base colour to underparts, strong white supercilium and clear white wing bars.

This pose is similar to the bird above in neutral light but note how the upperpart colours look much warmer in the sunlight

With the sun shining on it the bird on the left appeared very pale on the underparts. It is also sunning itself and has its feather fluffed up. I never got to grips with it in the field but assume this is a (the) Water Pipit. Compared to the Rock Pipit to the right (which does not have the sun directly on it) the uperparts have a distinct browner hew.

One of the Rock Pipits bore a yellow colouring ring EEL. This bird has been recorded at Mølen previously with the first record on 2.11.2011. The bird was ringed at Giske, Møre & Romsdal, Norway on 02.10.2011 and was seen at Mølen already on 02.11.2011. It spent the rest of the winter there and was back again for the winter on 30.10.2012. Colour ringed birds from the same location have also been seen in Sussex, England (my old stomping ground).

Rock Pipit

Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke). The yellow brown ground colour to the underparts leaves no doubt this is a Rock Pipit but the upperparts had a very warm brown hew in the low winter sunlight.

On the sea a single Long-tailed Duck (havelle) and two Shags (toppskarv) amongst commoner seabirds were good finds.

I had a walk around nearby Mølen where there were 100 Velvet Scoters (sjøorre) and a Red-necked Grebe (gråstrupedykker) were the highlights.

Driving towards Tønsberg I took the scenic route hoping to score some Hawkie as I needed a hit. And sure enough.......

A Hawk Owl has been seen in this area in since 8th December but was last reported 22^nd December.

In Tønsberg I visited Presterødkilen. Here the bay was entirely covered in ice despite it being barely zero degrees and the last few days not having been particularly cold. The reeds still held Water Rail (vannrikse) and Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) although I only heard them calling. I had to go out to the open sea to find some ice free water although fog made visibility quite limited. At Jarlsø two Little Grebes (dvergdykker) were nice to get onto the year list.

Fog

Birding has been a bit slow over the weekend and today was another day with temperatures around zero and a resulting fog which is not conducive to very much at all. Hawk Owls are still being seen around Oslo with at least four within 40 minutes of the city centre on Sunday. I also see that in Sweden there has been a huge increase in reports over the last week. The increase seems to be too great to simply be due to year listers so there is probably a new influx occuring.
Big news here was a pair of Water Pipits found at Mølen yesterday which I intend to search for tomorrow when the forecast is for much better weather so hopefully I will be able to photograph this difficult species.