An unwanted and unmerited armchair tick

Even when birding is slow and you don’t even leave the house and just enjoy the comfort of your armchair it is still possible to add a bird to your list. A so called armchair tick (sofakryss in Norwegian) is when a committee has made a decision that suddenly adds a species to your list that you hadn’t expected at the time you saw the bird (although birders do also engage in “insurance ticking” of birds that they can’t add to their list there and then but know that in the future a decision might be taken that will give them an armchair tick). Armchair ticks usually come from “splitting” where an existing species is split into two or more new species, but it can also come about through a change in the category of a bird. Some records are categorised as meaning the bird is considered an escape from captivity and therefore not truly wild and therefore not “tickable”. If an old record is recategorised though this can mean one can gain (or lose) a tick. Are you following me?

I had been out this morning and had heard a Bearded Tit for my endevaours and then came home, plomped into the metaphorical armchair, checked Facebook and saw that I had a new tick! The only problem is that it is a tick I don’t want and a record that I do not believe should grace the official annals of Norwegian avifauna.

As a result of a category review of all Norwegian Red-breasted Geese a bird previously deemed not to be wild has now been recategorized to be as good as they get. Back in 2012 there was a Red-breasted Goose at Fornebu for the whole summer. Here are a couple of pictures of it that have made their way into the family album:

It kept company with the local feral Barnacle Geese, gazed the grass in parks, allowed approach to within a metre or so and is likely to be the same bird that had been seen on one day at Fornebu in June 2010 (an unlikely repeat occurrence for a wild bird). Apart from the fact that this bird was unringed there was absolutely nothing to suggest a wild origin and an origin either from captivity or from one of the feral/escaped populations in northern Europe is by far the most likely (a tremendous number of feral Bar-headed Geese migrate to Norway every summer from Germany/Holland but nobody has attempted to argue that these are wild). It can be argued that other wild geese have joined the local feral birds and adopted their ways but we have no local records of either White-fronted or Bean Geese that approach this bird in terms of having over summered and been so tame.

The original decision had been to put the bird in Category D (not saying it was a definite escape but mostly likely to be) but as a result of the review of the category of all Norwegian records of Red-breasted Goose it has now ended up in Category A and deemed to be as wild as they come. I know that a consistent methodology has been applied in the review, that the NSKF has put a lot of thought into the review and that each decision has a reasoning behind it. But at the end of the day it seems it is only the presence of a plastic ring or if the goose was alone (rather than having been clever enough to join up with the other local feral geese) will result in a bird being classified as an escape (Category E) and this is just too simplistic.  It has the undoubted advantage of being an easy and simple policy to apply (and is consistent with Ruddy Shelduck although at odds with Snow Geese which are all considered dodgy) but is not in my opinion a smart policy. If this policy is applied to Lesser White-fronted Goose then Norway may soon have to accept Swedish reintroduced birds as being wild and welcome them rather than the current policy of shooting them when they cross the border – maybe a Trump style Wall is needed here 😉. I know from my time in the committee that discussions on categories are difficult and do not engage people and I would not have been looking forward to such a discussion myself – it is much more fun discussing ID features – but I don't think decisions like this do anyone any favours. Then again I only have myself to blame as if I hadn't stood down from the committee then I could have affected the decision making.

NSKF in Tangen

Friday to Sunday was spent at Tangen, Kjell Mjølsnes’s house which (as I have written many times before) must be the best birding house in Norway. The occasion was the spring NSKF meeting and as usual the meeting was scheduled for a time of the year when the birding would be so poor that we would manage to do NSKF work instead of being out birding. And it worked – we were very hard working and on Saturday did not even leave the house although there is always something to see from the windows….

What we can see from the windows is fascinating though. Two Woodcock were often to be seen feeding on the lawn (something I have only ever observed from Kjell’s living room), Hen Harriers flew by, a male Smew and Scaup could be seen from the viewing platform on Kjell’s barn and very close by were flocks of geese and swans.

We did manage some other birding on the way to and from the airport and Black-throated Thrush and male Steller’s Eider were twitched. I had hoped to finally see Stonechat in Norway but a pair of birds that had been wintering in the area were not to be found and had probably perished as the Europe wide cold spell had left its mark even here although surprisingly there was no snow. Passerines of any kind were incredibly scarce and Lapwings that had previously been in the area had also disappeared and there were no signs of spring. Woodcocks were also seen in a number of places other than Kjell’s garden which is a sure sign of how difficult conditions had become for them and desperate they were.

Here are videos of Woodcock (rugde) , Black-throated Thrush (svartstrupetrost) and Steller's Eider (stellerand):

male Black-throated Thrush - this bird has been hanging out on this manure pile for a few months and seems very at home

Long-tailed Duck (havelle)

arctic conditions

Orrevatnet as viewed from Kjell's barn had just a few small area of open water where this male Smew (lappfiskand) had sought refuge

this male Steller's Eider is a rare bird in SW Norway and was a big surprise 

 Tundra (rossicus) Bean Goose (sædgås) with Greylags

one of two Woodcock forced into looking for worms on Kjell's lawn in the middle of the day. The large eye is because this bird is normally nocturnal. Here it had been scared by an oerflying Sparrowhawk and had frozen

they feed very actively and are constanly digging into the ground looking for worms

Jæren day 3

The last day on Jæren was a day filled with strong south easterly winds – surely the sort of weather to turn up lots of scarce/rarities? Well seemingly not and definitely not us.

An inland Red-necked Grebe (gråstrupedykker) that we found was the first record at the site for 31 years so must count as something exceptional or maybe that’s just me trying to think positive – I have been accused of being negative towards Jæren…. ;-)

Jæren and especially the area around Orrevatnet is the only remaining breeding area for Black-tailed Godwits (svarthodespove) of the race limosa and the small number of pairs (< 15?) are quite noticeable. One bird was quite angry as we walked along a road and presumably its mate was on a nest nearby. They breed in quite normal looking silage fields rather than wetland areas and often fail in their breeding attempts due to farming activity – it’s a shame the birds can’t choose safer areas to nest and of course a shame that the farmers can’t protect the nests.

Black-tailed Godwit

Red-necked Grebe

Jæren day 2

Now I’m not really moaning but I was missing Maridalen again today. My trips to Jæren have never really delivered the goods and today was slow going. Our birding session in the morning started with an attempt to find passerines and gave just my first Pied Flycatcher (svarthvit fluesnapper) of the year of any interest. After this we tried various places before hour heading to a good view point for raptors. On our travels we picked up Whinchat (buskskvett) and Cuckoo (gjøk) which were new for the year plus a nice male Garganey (knekkand) but there were not a lot of birds to see. Our raptor watching was even quieter though and the only migrating birds were 2 Buzzards (musvåk) and 4 Sparrowhawks (spurvehauk) although 3 Golden Eagles (kongeørn) were of course nice and a singing Wryneck (vendehals) was a little unexpected.

Back at Kjells house we caught up with a long staying male Green-winged Teal (amerikakrikkand) and a very smart and interesting Pochard (taffeland) x Tufted Duck (toppand) hybrid which has caused confusion with it being called a Lesser Scaup (purprhodeand) although its true identity was surprisingly obvious with it looking very Pochard like from certain angles.

Male Garganey (knekkand) with Teal (krikkand), Mallard (stokkand) and a male Gadwall (snadderand)

never a bird one can go tired of: Pied Flycatcher (svarthvit fluesnapper)

male Scaup (bergand) with male Tufted Duck (toppand)

the male hybrid Pochard (taffeland) x Tufted Duck. Note how the head shape varies, the purple head colour, the grey back, the bill resembles Pochard. Not so clear in these pictures is that the flanks were not white and were noticeably greyer than on Tufted Duck which is a clear Pochard influence

 

a video "grab" from the following video

 

 

 

 

Jæren day 1

1^st May is normally a brilliant day to be in Maridalen and indeed today two singing Wrynecks turned up no doubt to the pure delight and pleasure for those who saw them. I on the other hand find myself spirited away to Jæren for an NSKF meeting. For those familiar with Norwegian birding hotspots you are probably thinking luck you! But you can take the boy out of Maridalen but you can’t take Maridalen out of the boy.

 Jæren hasn’t proven that exciting so far although 15 year ticks within the first 24 hours is not something I could have expected in Oslo this weekend. We split into 2 groups this morning (before doing committee work in the afternoon and evening) and the group I was not in experienced a mini fall of passerines including a singing Red-breasted Flycatcher (dvergfluesnapper) whereas my group (group is probably the wrong word as it was just Tor and I – more like a deadly duo) concentrated on seawatching and were rewarded by 3 White-billed Divers (gulnebblom)  alongside over 200 Red-throated Divers (smålom) migrating north, 2 Glaucous Gulls (polarmåke) and the long-staying Surf Scoter (brilleand). I also had a couple of personal birding firsts with displaying Black-tailed Godwits (svarthalespove) plus also for the first time close views of summer plumaged Great Northern Divers (islom).

Buoyed by our couple of Glaucous Gulls Tor and I spent some time looking through a large flock of gulls on some fields and reckoned we should be able to find a Caspian Gull. Seconds later Tor found an interesting bird but its small size and when it flew all dark primaries pointed towards it being a 2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull (sildemåke) but non-the-less a smart gull.

We are staying as usual at Kjell Mjølsnes house which I have said before is undoubtedly the best placed house a birder could dream of having. Best bird for me so far from the house was a singing Grasshopper Warbler (gresshoppesanger) when I walked out but it wouldn’t surprise me if we turned up a national rarity before the weekend is done.

the closest of the migrating White-billed Divers - what a bird!

male Surf Scoter

a very white and large Glaucous Gull, presumed 2cy

 

 

 

summer plumaged Great Northern Diver

 

ringed female Pied Wagtail (svartryggerle)

 

Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke) and Ringed Plover (sandlo)



1st summer / 2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull - an unusual age group in Norway

 

Video of the Surf Scoter:

 

 

 

Year ticks:

Great Northern Diver, White-billed Diver, Shag, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Turnstone, Glaucous Gull, Black Guillemot, Razorbill, Rock Pipit, Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Rook  plus a flava Yellow Wagtail from the living room window in the evening whilst doing committee work!

Being an Ornithologist

I was birding today at the Botanical Gardens but this time it was without binoculars and inside. I was examining skins in the collection at the Zoological Museum (which is housed in the gardens). In connection with a review we are doing in the NSKF, Tor Olsen had unearthed a picture of a previously accepted bird turned up which clearly didn’t look right. Luckily the bird in question had been found dead and the specimen deposited at the museum. I was sent off to investigate and had my first ever session going through skins and thoroughly enjoyed it! Maybe there are the makings of a proper ornithologist in me after all.

I will not reveal what the species was (yet) as I intend to write a proper article on the subject but it is from a genus that loves to produce hybrids which is what this particular bird turned out to be.

I also found a specimen of Blue-winged Teal (blåvingand), which has less than 10 Norwegian records, in the museum which is not in our archives although it may be a case of incorrect labelling.

Outside of the buildings the park was as equally birdless as yesterday although three different Goshawks (hønsehauk) was an unusual sight. Two different young birds were on view together and one was very vocal with a gull like quality to its call.

As I was in town and on foot I checked out some of the gulls gatherings but couldn’t turn up any white-winged variants despite the arctic like conditions.

In the garden at home, the onset of the cold weather on Saturday had brought about a sharp interest in the number of Blackbirds (svarttrost) in the garden with three different adult males, 2 2cy males and a female showing themselves. This was up from the normal single example of each age/sex class. Now it is only the three birds again and they are being quite territorial. On the Saturday though they were not chasing each other off and it almost seemed that the sudden change in the weather had put survivial first but that now they have settled into their old routines again and vigorously defend their “own” apple that I put out for them.

NSKF meeting and an almost rarity

This weekend has been taken up with the spring NSKF (Norwegian Rarities Committee) meeting in Jæren – Norway’s premier birding area. Unfortunately spring has not yet come to Jæren either so there was hardly any migration to witness although on Sunday there was a little more life. As it is Jæren there are always birds to see though and the year ticks flooded in but there were no flocks of thrushes, no white wagtails and most of the ducks were over-wintering birds.

There was one real highlight though when I found a Green-winged Teal (amerikakrikkand) – a true rarity. I was with Tor Auden Olsen at Grudavatnet and we were pleased with a couple of Ruff (brushane) which were the first recorded in Norway this year and had both of us had looked through a flock of Teal (krikkand) a couple of times without finding anything more exciting. I was mentioning that Green winged Teal was perhaps our best chance of a rarity when on my third look through the flock I found one. I had to repeat myself a couple of times before Tor understood that I had actually found one, live in the flesh! It was at quite a distance and even though we were able to come closer on the other side of the lake it was always at least 300m from us. Never-the-less I managed some pictures – important to provide evidence convince our fellow NSKF members that we had seen it ;-) Or it would have been if the species was still a national rarity – I had forgotten that it had been degraded a year ago!

The Green-winged Teal (amerikrikkand) differs from its european cousins (krikkand) primarily by having vertical white stripes at the front of the flanks rather than horizontal white stripes over the flanks

the vertical white stripes are very obvious head on

Compared to the Oslo area the number of water birds cannot be compared. On the sea at Revtangen we had 8+ Great Northern Divers (islom), 300+ Common Scoter (svartand), 50+ Long-tailed Ducks (havelle), a 1^st winter Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) heading north, and my first Ringed Plover (sandlo) and Purple Sandpipers (fjæreplytt) of the year. On Orrevatnet and the other lakes there were 1000’s of Greylag Geese (grågås) with a scattering of White-fronted (tundragås), Pink-footed (kortnebbgås),  Canada (kandadgås) and a single Bar-headed Goose (stripegås) amongst them. There were also hundreds of Wigeon (brunnakke) with smaller numbers of Teal and Mallard (stokkand) and with a pair of Gadwall (snadderand) and single male Shoveler (skjeand) and Pintail (stjertand) amongst them. Diving ducks were far less numerous with 100+ Tufted Ducks (toppand), 15 Scaup (bergand) and four Smew (lappfiskand) including a superb male and a male Pochard (taffeland) amongst them.

The only new passerine I had for the year was a single Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke) and there were no flocks of finches or buntings to be seen. Raptors were very scarce with just single White-tailed Eagle (havørn), Peregrine (vandrefalk) and Merlin (dvergfalk), 2 Goshawks (hønsehauk) and 2 Marsh Harriers (sivhauk). On Sunday though there was some sign of passage with a couple of Sparrowhawks (spurvehauk), and single Common (musvåk) and Rough-legged Buzzard (fjelllvåk) heading north.

Many of the birds were seen from the Kjell Mjølsnes’s house (host for the meeting) which must surely be the best birding house in Norway looking out over the particularly productive Ergevatnet.

view from Kjell's sitting room. Hundred of Wigeon were on the water plus, Shoveler and Pochard with hunting Marsh Harrier, Goshawk and Merlin

One highlight was seeing a Woodcock (rugde) standing under a bush from the kitchen window – possibly the first time I have seen one on the ground in daylight!

daytime Woodcock (rugde) - look how large the eye is on this nocturnal wader

pair of Smews (lappfiskand) - this poorly exposed picture does not do justice to this magnificent duck

Finally, the weekend’s mystery gull. This 2k (or at least that’s what we believe) Herring Gull at Harvalandsvatnet on Saturday had me considering Caspian Gull due to its white head and some jizz features but in flight the underwing was far too dark so this is just a Herring Gull (although some may say of eastern origin).

interesting looking 2k gull

the dark underwing would seem to leave little doubt this is a Herring Gull