A Polish swan

Another pre-breakfast Tour de Maridalen with PC gave some new signs of spring but generally few birds. Chaffinches have now become a part of the dawn chorus with 4 males singing and a singing Reed Bunting was unexpectedly early we also heard a singing Redwing but it turned out to be a mimicking Starling.

The Great Grey Shrike also showed well and is now gaining a more adult like and smarter plumage. It was preening a lot so is presumably moulting some body feathers. At one stage it flew 60-70 metres up in the air and flew around circles. It was unclear what it was doing, maybe seeing what conditions were like further away as it was thinking of starting its spring migration but it eventually returned to where it had been. There were three male Lapwings on their field but no females have yet arrived which is not surprising as it looks like food would be hard to come by just now.

In the afternoon a family trip to Fornebu gave close encounters with Mute Swans, Greylag Geese and Black-headed Gulls. Like all self-respecting Norwegian Mute Swans these birds were carrying bling and junior noticed that the female had pale feet. She wondered whether that was because she was a female which I was pretty sure was not the case but had no good reason for why she would have pale(r) feet. Thanks to the ringing history though I found out she was a “Polish” Mute Swan as a juvenile and this is clearly a plumage trait that they carry into adulthood. We also saw this pair mating which is quite an elaborate affair as far a bird s*x goes.

female Mute Swan "27E" ringed as a chick 12 August 2008 6km away from Fornebu and now breeding on Fornebu. As a juvenile this was a so called "Polish" Mute Swan and its pale feet are a sign of this

same bird

its mate 64E

here is the pair performing foreplay. The female is on the right with a smaller knob above the bill and the paler bill is probably also a sing of its "Polish" heritage

mating

climax has been reached

This video of sorts shows the act

Skylark (sanglerke) in Maridalen

the Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in Maridalen

lots of preening

the birds bill and lores are getting darker as it assumes adult plumage

there were lots of Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb) in Maridalen

a ringed Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) which I though had a particularly contrasting wing plumage. This bird J0J3 is a local breeding bird which was ringed as an adult on 14 May 2011 but has never never been recorded anywhere else than Oslo

close up of Greylag Goose (grågås)

My daughter Emily's beautiful shot of a Herring Gull (gråmåke). This bird had an injured leg

Slipping it in

Today's birding was limited to slipping in a quick afternoon drive around Maridalen. The thaw is happening very slowly but I think conditions are looking good for Snow Buntings but it would probably help with some rain or thick cloud to bring down some migrating birds.
I heard my first singing Chaffinches of the year plus Brambling which we also heard yesterday. Quite surprisingly the Tawny Owl was still sleeping in the same (and clearly favoured) tree.

Out of hibernation

It is not just migrant birds that appear in the spring, hibernating birders also make their first appearance and this morning I managed to get Per Christian out for a pre-breakfast Maridalen trip. Already as I went out to the car just before 7am I heard the drumming Lesser Spotted Woodpecker which I hoped would be a good omen as my aim for today was to find drumming Three-toed Woodpeckers.

That unfortunately was not to be and although Great Spotted and Green Woodpeckers were active around the farmland in the valley there was very little ‘pecker activity in the forest with just a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a calling Black. It is clearly still too cold and wintery in the forests and will be a week or so before the forest breeding ‘peckers get going. Common Crossbills are still everywhere although I have yet to locate a nest. A group of agitated Crossbills with some Siskins and a couple of Yellowhammers alerted us to a roosting owl high up in a spruce tree. I hoped it would be a Tengmalm’s but we had to make do with a Tawny Owl who seemed happy to sit out the annoyed passerines and try to sleep.

The Great Grey Shrike was singing although it won’t win any prizes for the quality of its song. There were only two signs of migration but both were very god to see. The first was a bit of a surprise due to the early date with a flock of ca.100 Pink-footed Geese heading north. They were also early in the day (08:41) meaning they hadn’t left Denmark this morning but had probably spent the night somewhere in southern Sweden or Norway. The second sign was four Lapwings on their breeding field. All looked to be males and were sat away from each other as though they were already marking out territories.

A family bike ride in the afternoon took us to Frognerparken where there were many calling Black-headed Gulls making it really feel like spring but no Lesser Black-backed Gulls yet.

The Tawny Owl (kattugle) with a male Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) giving it a hard time

this male Yellowhammer showed well and was naturally framed

 

very little open water in Maridalen but a pair each of Goldeneye (kvinand) and Mallard (stokkand) were on it

 

the now singing Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in silhouette

and being mobbed by Yellowhammer and Siskin (grønnsisik)

the years first skein of Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) over Oslo. I reckon there are 115 here but will be pleased to receive a more accurate number if anyone wants to count them precisely (100 looks for accurate....). What must be the same birds were seen a hour and 50 minutes later just south of Hamar and ca.80km north of Maridalen

the first Lapwings (vipe) were back in Maridalen today but will struggle to find food

this spring would appear to be a fairly average one regarding arrival of Lapwing

Golden eyes

I have come to expect an annual visit to the garden by Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers and today I had one drumming intermittently nearby but I was unable to see it although it was probably no more than 100m from the garden. Hopefully it will hang around a few days and come and drum from the willow tree in the garden.

A family walk along Akerselva under blue skies did not reveal any migrating Buzzards or Cranes as I had hoped and I had to be satisfied with a ridiculously tame pair of Goldeneyes that were hanging around with Mallards waiting for bread.

male Goldeneye (kvinand)

female Goldeneye

Woodlark

Woodlarks are an early if very scarce migrant and I had thought of looking for them yesterday but decided there was still too much snow. Zak tried though and had a bird so I went looking this morning hoping to hear the magical flutey song. That I did not hear but I eventually heard a bird calling, picked it up in flight and saw it briefly on the deck. In a few weeks I expect there will be a lot of song but for the now the bird gave the impression it was just interested in surviving.

I confirmed the presence of at least 152 Beans (which is probably just a more accurate count rather than a real increase from yesterday) plus 3 Pink feet although there could have been more. I again heard but did not see a Crane and a lively flock of 60 Whooper was on the same fields.

Wood Pigeons were more conspicuous today with small groups heading north.

The valley in Aurskog Høland held a couple of Lapwing today but still no waterfowl or Cranes. Maridalen however did have something new with the pair of Whooper Swans back on a small area of open water.

my first Woodlark (trelerke) of the year at the only known breeding site in Akershus

This Lapwing (vipe) showed very well. Note the colours on the wing - like an oil sheen on water

this Willow Tit (granmeis) was singing at the Woodlark site

as was this Yellowhammer (gulspurv)

and close by a moose nonchalantly crossed the road

and now for some obligatory Taiga (fabalis) Bean Goose shots

there was a lot of movement by the Bean Geese but always within the same field and in two hours of waiting they did not fly down to the river which would have allowed me to make an accurate count

here a single Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås) with two Beans. The differences in structure, size, bill colour and more subtle plumage differences can be seen

and here another two Pink-foots together with 7P

here a Pink-foot is flying together with 3 Beans including 10

in flight the orange legs can be very obvious

here is 10 gain in flight with his green leg ring visisble

60 odd Whooper Swans were on the same field

although the field looks flat there is a large depression that runs across the middle of it where many geese were feeding out of sight

A new routine

Funny how quiet some days can be without you managing to put your finger on why. Today was windless, sunny and warm and I thought there would some raptor activity and other viz mig. Needless to say none of that going on. I spent quite a long time at Udenes looking over the Glomma River and there was hardly a bird to see. No swans and next to no ducks. Has the White-tailed Eagle I saw on Tuesday scared everything away? I did hear a distant Crane which is one of the very first birds in Norway this year but I would have much preferred to see it.
The Beans were present and their numbers have significantly increased. Counting them in an undulating field was very difficult and I came up with a minimum of 134. Reading rings was difficult but I had three new birds.

A short stop in Maridalen on my way home turned up 3 singing Skylarks despite there hardly being any bare ground, a flyover Grey Wagtail and the Great Grey Shrike still going strong.

After leaving the river the geese split into 2 groups. This flock of 58 on the snow was easy to see and I read a number of rings all of which are shown below

The black ring on left leg shows this to be 07 whose GPS transmitter has stopped working. The solar panel is visible here

6S which I saw for the first time this year and was one of the original birds I saw here in March 2012

6Y with a ringed but non-collared bird. The birds seemed to be paired and is likely to be 3X whose collar has dropped off

6Y again and 6U

6Z and 6X who are a pair and blue right (06) with an old GPS transmitter

6Z and 6X again plus yellow left (04) and blue right (06) again

3Y

7V whose is paired to 3Y

the rest of the flock was feeding at greater range in this adjoining field where they could disappear in deep depresions

here looking over to Udenes Church which is the viewpoint for watching the geese on the Glomma Rive which you can see below and to the left of the church. The geese are feeding in fields behind me meaning they have a short journey between roost/loafing site and feeding site

This was my only raptor of the day, a perched Common Buzzard (musvåk)

Maridalen's Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

 

Maridalen's first Skylark (sanglerke) of the year was singing from this perch

can you make out Grey Wagtail (vintererle) and Skylark?

the fields at Kirkeby, Maridalen where the Skylarks were. Note the ski tracks still visible in the snow