Beany time

Julian joined me today and we headed first to look for the Taiga Bean Geese. I also hoped for some viz mig but we had very little of that with just a few Lapwings clearly migrating.

Winter which had returned last week left us abruptly on Sunday morning when rain and warm temperatures resulted in snow rapidly disappearing and quite a bit of flooding in the river valleys today. It will take a few more warm days before migrant waterfowl start exploiting the flood waters but there is a question as to how long the waters will remain if we don’t get more rain soon.

The thaw had allowed the Bean Geese to use their usual favoured field and we counted 124 birds. Among them were 7 collared birds but only one of these had a new GPS collar whilst 2 have been transmitting from the area. Another observer had around 140 birds in the area later in the day (split into 2 flocks) suggesting we missed some birds (including the other GPS collar) earlier in the day. The Taiga Beans were entirely on their own with no Whooper Swans or other geese species with them.

Other good birds in the day were my first Cranes and Reed Bunting for the year and stop in Maridalen also revealed the first returning Lapwing and Starlings in the Dale.

part of the flock on a favoured field and the same field where I first read the rings on 20 March 2012. Today, I didn't read any of the same rings as I did 8 years ago although some are still around

a bird in flight showing the dark forewing

the distinctive long neck and bills of Taiga Bean Geese

7V and 3Y are a pair that I have seen many times since they were ringed in October 2013

this bird has an old, non-functioning GPS collar without an inscription but had a yellow ring on its left leg showing it to be "04" who was also ringed Oct 2013 and a bird I know well 

these two birds with very orange bills and white at the base are very extreme and similar birds have been misidentified as White-fronted in the past

the inset shows two new GPS collars:  on the left must be «18» and on the right is «27»

one of 3 Lapwings in Maridalen

9 March is the joint earliest arrival date

Common Buzzard (musvåk)

2 very distant Cranes (trane)

the neck collar on this Greylag at Kjelle, Bjørkelangen did NOT look comfortable at all! The bird was ringed in Sweden 18June 2018 was also seen at Kjelle in May 2019 and spent this last winter in Germany

R.I.P Fornebu

The Beast and I had our regular Friday boyz morning out and chose to visit Fornebu today where we hoped to spot some nice chicks. Unfortunately, Fornebu is now in its death throws as a birding location. The airport closed in 1998 and since then the redevelopment of the site has progressed very slowly which has been to the benefit of wildlife. The pace of the “development” has picked up in the last couple of years though and it was painful to see that the best area has now been scraped clean of all vegetation and fenced off awaiting the building of apartments that will probably be called Plover Place or something similar. This area held breeding Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, Skylarks, Linnets and Wheatears and on passage held goodies such as Snow Bunting, Shore Lark and Woodlark as well as large flocks of finches and pipits. Despite the site looking like a battlefield there was still a Skylark singing over it today and three Twite briefly stopped there – all probably remembering how good it used to be there.

Fornebu held little else with all water being frozen but a couple of Water Rails called from the reedbeds and a flock of Redpolls (of which there are lots around at the moment) held one definte Arctic (plus at least one more probable), a couple of Lessers and the rest were Mealy. Offshore 5 Shelduck were my first of the year.

Lots of Stonechats are turning up in Southern Norway at the moment and this was a species I hoped to find today. I failed at Fornebu and then at Bygdøy and in Maridalen but the chances should be good over the coming weeks. Bygdøy held over 100 Greylag Geese with 3 Barnacle, 2 Canada and a Canada x Greylag hybrid amongst them but nothing more exciting.

Oslo Harbour held 195 Common Eiders and 300 Goldeneye and I really thought I would find the male King Eider that has been knocking around the Oslofjord for a couple of years now but that I didn’t find it came as no surprise when a message came through that it was 100km to the south.

A stop at Østensjøvannet revealed a sizaeable area of open water that was full of birds. 18 vocal Whooper Swans and 27 Mute Swans were quite a sight alongside Coots, 6 species of duck, 3 species of geese and another couple of hybrids.

Maridalen was quiet except for a singing Great Grey Shrike the sound of which carried many hundred metres.

An Arctic Redpoll either a species or a clinal subspecies/morph depending on how you look at it. This is a pretty straightforward example with very white base colour, small bill, large white rump, little flank streaking and seemingly all white undertail coverts

here with a pale Mealt (Common) Redpoll

I am unsure about this bird. It is pale and looks to have a large white rump but is clearly a male due to the pink breast and therfore the streaking on the flanks seems to be too much 

this bird was also pale and had a large white rump but bill is not very small

the left hand bird is possibly the same as above and has a very large white rump and looks to be pale but I am unsure where this should be placed

here the Arctic is the right hand bird but does not really stand out

the 3 Twites checking out Plover Place

male Goldeneye at Østensjøvannet 

and male Goosander (laksand)

a Little Grebe (dvergdykker) in Oslo Harbour

part of the scene at Østensjøvannet

female Mallard (stokkand)

male Mallard

and a so-called "intersex" Mallard which is a female (see bill) but has a plumage that is very male like

Snow Bunting

Winter has come back after being absent for over 2 months and welcome it is. We now have snow in Oslo and everything is white instead of being brown and grey. The return of winter will hopefully also mean a better spring for bird migration with some local flooding and wet fields.

I have been following the movements of the tagged Bean Geese and thought that I would go look for them again on their Akershus staging grounds today. The bird that came back on 24 Feb and which I had seen on 26 Feb has since returned to Denmark but at the same time he thought it was too wintery here another two of the tagged birds decided it was too spring like in Denmark and flew north to Akershus! Yesterday the original bird set course for Norway again so I thought I would join them and see how many there were and if I could read any other collars.

When I arrived there was fog which took an hour to lift and then I couldn’t find any geese either on the river or on the fields…. A confiding Snow Bunting was very good value though and Whooper Swans have started to arrive in good numbers although a number arrived from the north suggesting that they too were finding things a bit wintery. Eventually after 3 hours I saw three untagged Beans flying in from the south and they gave the impression of having flown a long way so were perhaps fresh in from Denmark. The map showing where the tagged birds were did not update whilst I was out in the field but I now see they were in an area that was probably not visible to me although I had looked over as much of the field as I could.

male Snow Bunting (snøspurv)

the 3 Taiga Bean Geese that I saw and the top of the sandbank that they roost on which is just becoming visible as water levels fall

Whooper Swans heading south

Skylarks are now back and singing despite the snow

The light and visibility changed a lot today..

Udenes Church 09:32

09:43

10:29

12:06

looking down over the Glomma River 09:11

10:02

10:28

the favoured fields which were not being used today  not surprsiing given the amount of snow

Guiding yesterday drew a complete blank on all three members of Oslo’s Taiga Trio (despite nearly 10 hours and checking multiple sites) and I herewith declare the season over and call time on what has been a memorable ride. Piney and Hawkie have moved on to their more northerly breeding grounds (just when we have finally had a big fall of snow and got a wintery feeling in Oslo) whereas GG are probably still in the area but lack of food has made them far more erratic and luck now overrides hard work and knowledge when it comes to finding one.

I was able to relax today though and enjoy non owl related birding. Anders and I decided to twitch a 1^st winter White-billed Diver that has been frequenting a river close to Oslo the last few days. We took a while to find it but eventually enjoyed really good scope views of it although could only wish we were positioned on the other side of the river which would have given us point blank views. Initially the bird was actively fishing and was swimming upstream despite a strong current. It dived frequently and was down for long periods – I timed one of its dives and it was a whopping 1min 8sec which is just as long as I manage to do the plank! We saw it catch one small flat fish after which it relaxed on the surface and preened and flapped its wings. Then it suddenly took flight. It initially flew low over the river heading downstream before turning and gaining some height before flying very close to us. It then turned again and started gaining a lot of height. It flew over us again heading east before turning one more time and performing another fly by before finally turning south over land and disappearing – talk about timing!

After complaining that I had never got to see White-billed Diver I have now had two fantastic experiences with the species near Oslo this winter. Just need to find one on Maridalsvannet now…

1st winter White-billed Diver (gulnebblom) with a snack 

It would have been nice to be on the other side of the river

side-by-side with a Greylag Goose gives a good indication of how GINORMOUS it is

taking off

fly-by

just before it turned and came back for its third fly by

just look at how long those legs are

Getting reacquainted

Confirmation that there are still Great Grey Owls in the Oslo area came this evening when an after dinner dog walk combined with some driving practice for OB Jr revealed a roadside bird in the car headlights. Many locals have expressed surprise when I have said that GG does most of its hunting at night and that its levels of daytime activity are in correlation to how successful it was the previous night – that it should be surprising that an owl hunts at night was surprising to me. Anyhow, it was satisfying to find one hunting at night. It was also interesting to see it disappear into the dark and fly over a field that was at least 200m wide - they clearly can cover very large areas at night in their search for a vole or two.

This was my fourth after dark visit in the last month and in addition to the GG was the first time I have heard an owl of any type with a Tawny hooting away.

This gives me renewed belief that I will find GG during the day as I have more guiding this week starting tomorrow morning – at least I have a good pointer as to where to start the search.

Digitally captured on the superzoom which works surprisingly well in the dark.