The Famous Oslo Grouse

One of the great things with birding is that it never fails to surprise. On Facebook yesterday there was a fascinating report of a Grouse (rype) seen in a small wood within urban Oslo. I didn’t really expect this bird to be “twitchable” so made no plans to go looking for it today. Instead I headed out east again where Stig Helge Brasnes could report that the spring flood had started at Kjelle and the first geese and swans were thee. He had also seen some crossbills nearby recently which could well have been Parrot (furukorsnebb) and I had a hope of getting some photos. Weather-wise the temperatures are holding just above zero so the thaw is continuing but with a fresh southerly wind and rain in the air it was quite unpleasant being out. There were only small numbers of geese and swans with 30 Whoopers (sangsvane), 55 Canada Geese and 5 Greylags (grågås) but they should build up to many hundreds over the next couple of weeks. My first two Lapwings (vipe )of the year were as hoped for as was a heard only Skylark (sanglerke) and a Great Grey Shrike (varsler). I searched for crossbills but found none although it was far from ideal conditions for searching for forest birds.

With good time on my hands I headed home wondering what else I should do. I stopped at Langtjernet on the chance that the Caspian Gull may still be around but there were very few gulls. However the hybrid Carrion x Hooded Crow that has been seen a few times was on the ice and looking pretty ugly.

Still with a bag full of time to play with I realised that it would only be a small detour on the way home to the area where the grouse was seen yesterday. I wasn’t going to search for a needle though so found the phone number of the lady who had reported the bird and rang her. She was most pleasant and helpful and described exactly where she had seen the bird yesterday which was not deep in the wood but right on its edge by a road. I drove there, got out of the car and as Garner would say BOOM! There was a fluffy white bundle of feathers just metres away from me!! I must admit I began to think it was a stuffed bird and I was the victim of an early 1 April prank but it moved! I watched it, filmed it and photographed for around an hour and saw it feeding, shitting, ducking when a falcon-like Pigeon flew over and generally looking healthy. The fact that it was sat in exactly the same place as yesterday, in a city, by a building site though does suggest that this bird is a beer short of a six-pack, a spanner short of a tool box etc etc. But what a bird, my best views ever of the species and something I never, ever, thought would end up on my Oslo list. Edit: this bird has turned out to be a Ptarmigan and not a Willow Grouse - unbelievable!

I even got the tripod out and made an effort with regards to my photos and video.

 

 

 

 

and some of today's other birds which were also quite noteworthy but got rather eclipsed by the now Famous Grouse.

 

a hybrid Carrion Crow (svartkråke) x Hooded Crow (kråke)

Great Grey Shrike in still wintery conditions

I think it was difficult for this Lapwing to find much food on the frozen field

both the Lapwings - the long head plumes show them both to be males

 

 

Some shrikes

My recent comments about it being spring were rather hasty. With more snow today it definitely still felt like winter. I went out east looking for arrivals of geese and swans which were already here in good numbers at this time last year but there was hardly anything to see which just goes to highlight how early spring did come last year. Although larger rivers are free of ice and there is only a thin layer of snow on the fields (last autumns stubble being visible) lakes are still frozen and there is no melt water yet with the latter being I think the major variable with regard the arrival of migrating waterfowl.

My travels did reveal a total of 4 Great Grey Shrikes (varsler) which is a bit of a return to the status of a couple of years ago. A few Greylag (grågås) and Canada Geese had returned but 7 Greylags heading south at Udenes Church (the Bean Goose site) probably had the right idea. The Scottish Bean Geese (sædgås) are now in Denmark and with the right weather may turn up here in the next couple of weeks. The mudbank is exposed in the river which is a good sign (last year it wasn’t exposed when the geese first arrived which I think caused them some issues with regards roosting). Even though it was rather lite on birds today it was great to be at this location again and I am very impatient for the geese to return,

A heard only flyover Snow Bunting (snøspurv) was a species I had hoped for although it would have been nice to see it! Three Parrot Crossbills (furukorsnebb) were also hoped for as a pair had been reported recently in the same area. I heard them first and after my recent run-ins with their two smaller cousins I was satisfied to hear the difference in the flight call. One female perched briefly in a tree top but flew off whilst I leant into the car to get the camera. Hopefully they are going to breed in this area which is rich in pine trees so will give future opportunities for close contact.

Three of the days shrikes had the honour of being digitally recorded but almost all pictures ended up being deleted. Here is the best shot I managed.

 

Snow Siskins

I was very premature with my comments about spring yesterday. Overnight the cloudless sky gave way to overcast conditions and lots of fresh wet snow. It also brought a garden record with the highest number of birds ever recorded. There has been a good number of Siskins (grønnsisik) in the garden over the last month with a maximum count of 22 which in itself was a record for this species. After we were away in the mountains and the food ran dry in the feeders there have only been a handful of Siskins in the garden but this morning there were 30 or so when I looked out at breakfast. Later I looked more closely and came up with a total of 70 and then mid-afternoon I counted them as they sat on wires and there were 110!! They are eating me out of house and home as well with the feeders needing to be replenished three times during the day. There is very little else in the garden and no other finches but if the Siskins remain over the next few weeks they will hopefully attract other birds. And there are plenty of birds in the area: a garden only 500m away has Bramblings (bjørkefink), Yellowhamers (gulspurv), Goldfinch (stillits) and Greenfinch (grønnfink) but fewer Siskins ;-)

The falling snow made birding pretty hopeless but I did check out Fornebu and Bygdøy where 6 Greylag Geese (grågås) were clearly newly in and are a foretaste of the next month where migrating geese will be the major attraction for me.

 

a record numbers of Siskins in the garden was today's highlight

29 of the 110 Siskins in the garden today

with the snow settling on their backs these 2 Greylag Geese are probably regretting their choice to be the first ones back in Oslo

 

Sunday sun

Spring does seem to be here now with plus temperatures and loads of birds singing. From the house I can hear singing Blackbird (svarttrost), Robin (rødstrupe), Siskin (grønnsisik), Blue Tit (blåmeis) and Great Tit (kjøttmeis). There is still snow on the ground but in the town it is melting and at the Botanical Gardens the snow has pretty much gone. I had hoped to find more signs of spring here but my first Chaffinch (bokfink) of the year was the only new bird although it was nice to hear the Hawfinches (kjernebiter) singing.

Amongst the Tree (pilfink) and House Sparrows (gråspurv) I had a hybrid between these two species. This is the first time I have seen an example of this not too rare pairing but unfortunately I did not manage a photo before it flew to another area of the gardens.

I also visited Frongerpark hoping that the Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke) of the last two springs may have returned but it hasn't, yet.......

 

A single Waxwing (sidensvans) in the Botanical Gardens was the days photographic highlight.

Waxwing

my first Chaffinch of the year

It isn't just gulls that carry bling in Oslo. I hope this male House Sparrow appreciates how important he is for science (or at least some students degree.....)

Many wing bars

Today (Wednesday) was our last day in the mountains and whilst the girls enjoyed a final ski I enjoyed sunny and warm conditions with much less wind than yesterday. Crossbills were obvious today and there were lots of 2BCs! I saw at least 3 pairs and they were singing and courtship feeding so it looks like they will at least attempt to breed here which will be one of only a handful of breeding records ever recorded in the Norwegian bird record database. I had an equal number of Common Crossbills and they were also in pairs. There is a very heavy crop of cones on the spruce trees and the spruce forests extend as far as the eye can see so there is likely to be a very large number of crossbills breeding in this area.

I had both male and female 2BCs singing which is not mentioned in BWP although it is mentioned for Common Crossbill. This time use of playback did result in one pair coming to investigate but does not seem to be a particularly useful method for locating this species. I located most of the birds walking slowly around the area and listening for them as they were quite vocal and by the end of the morning I had become proficient in separating Common and Two-barred on their normal (non trumpet) call. They are a pretty confiding species although due to the deep snow I was reliant on them being close to the road and on the right side of the tree of which eventually both a male and a female (although from different pairs) eventually obliged.

On the way home we stopped at a fjord where I had been told there were a pair of Mandarins and sure enough they were there among 60 or so Mallards. It was quite a barren fjord and not so easy to understand what was keeping them here.

male 2BC in the sun

female 2BC

courtship feeding

male in profile

curious female

both crossbills and Waxwings have barbed tongues which must come in useful when feeding

 

 

male Common and Two barred Crossbills. Even when the wing bars are not on show the difference in the red colour allows them to be separated

male Mandarin

pair

Mountain landscapes

It is getting quite windy in the mountains but today there was sun. Despite this there were still no soaring eagles and unfortunately no photo opportunities to equal yesterdays with the crossbills which with the sun could have resulted in some smashing pics. The Crossbills were quite obvious in the morning with Common flying around calling and a couple of males singing. I did not see any 2BCs perched but heard them a few times and had a single bird and then a pair flying around. Come the afternoon when the wind died down for an hour or so the crossbills all seemed to have vanished but were I assume just busily feeding somewhere.
I only had one bird photo that is worth sharing but the landscape pictures aren't too bad.

female Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb)

 

Better Crossbills

No soaring eagles today as the area was decked in low cloud which combined with a fresh wind made it quite unpleasant outside (temperature was -7C) and a 5mm thick layer of ice covered everything. With the appropriate clothes on though I took the kids out tobogganing and snow hole excavating and had my ears cocked for any sound of birds. There was not much to hear but eventually I did hear crossbills and located a small group not far away in some small trees. I collected the camera and was able to get close. A pair of Common Crossbills had the company of a (the?) male Two-barred Crossbill and whilst feasting my eyes at less than 10 metres range I could hear that there had to be another 2BC and sure enough a female joined the male. The male yesterday seemed to be alone so these may well have been new birds. Either way I enjoyed the couple of minutes they gave me before they moved on.

Later in the day whilst trying to relocate them (unsuccessfully) a Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) shot over my head with a couple of very agitated Common Crossbills flying away from it – a shot of a Pygmy Owl with a red male Crossbill in its claws would surely classify as a money shot?

 

pair of 2BC - great birds

the female - probably a 2cy due to quite thin white tips to the tertials

the male is an adult with thick white tips to the tertials

male Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb)

female Common Crossbill

 

More Crossbills

We are spending a few days with friends at a cabin in the ski resort of Gaustadblikk which is 3 hours drive south west of Oslo in Telemark County. We are a lot higher here than where I was in Hedmark on Thursday but the woodland is quite similar with scattered and generally short spruce trees which have a heavy cone crop and also have attracted a few Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb). I am unable to ski due to my knee so instead birded around the cabin. The area immediately in front of the cabin was for some reason a magnet for Crossbills and I had at least 10 Common Crossbills here throughout the day. Whilst sitting on the water closet after breakfast I heard a trumpet call outside. I finished up as quickly as I could and rushed outside to again here the trumpet but I was unable to locate the bird which had to be a 2BC (although I am a bit wary given a previous run in with a trumpeting Common Crossbill). I tried playing the calls of both 2BC (båndkorsnebb) and Common Crossbill which I have read work very well and are used in census work but seemed to not to work for me. I walked around the area and had little else. Once back at the cabin I regularly checked outside and mid afternoon a Crossbill sitting atop a spruce had wing bars! I have now recorded 2BC in three counties in 2015 which isn’t bad going.

There was quite low cloud today but I have high hopes for Golden Eagle here if we get better weather in the coming days. The drive from Oslo took us through some great forest habitat and a male Hazel Grouse (jerpe) sitting in snow by the side of the road was a most welcome if fleeting observation.

 

male 2BC (båndkorsnebb)



This more distant view shows the white tips to the tertials not visible in the closer picture

male Common Crossbill. In addition to lacking the white wing bars its more of an orange red compared to the pink red of the 2BC

 

 

 

Cormorant

Today’s birding was an unsuccessful attempt for Kingfisher (the same bird I saw at the end of last year) in Akershus. It probably didn’t help that it was sleeting but I did see a favoured perch on a stone hanging over the water which was given away by lots of droppings.

On Wednesday I walked along Akerselva and had a single Dipper (fossekall) singing in the middle of town plus a Cormorant (storskarv) perched up on a roof top. This is the first time I can remember seeing one on a roof top although they do regularly use man-made structures such as bridges, pylons and lighthouses.