To tick or not to tick, that is the question

In my previous post I wrote about my unsuccesful attempt to see a Pallid Swift on Friday whilst stood at Fornebu and the bird was at Nesoddtangen a mere 3.5km away over the fjord. I did not see the bird, but saw the birders who has seen it, and therefore did not need to consider the question as to whether I could add the bird to my Norwegian list which I was actually quite happy about.

On Saturday morning though as I ate breakfast a message came through that the bird was back at the same spot where it had been seen the day before. Even though Nesoddtangen is only 12km from my kitchen table as the swift flies it is a 53km drive which with windy roads would take at least 55 minutes. Another option is to take the ferry from downtown Oslo which if you time everything perfectly would be a quicker option but can easily take even longer door to door if you have to wait for the ferry. As I had committed to take Jr Jr out driving I decided that a trip to Nesoddtangen was off the cards but how about a repeat of Friday’s attempt from Fornebu which is only a 10 minute drive away? It was worth a try.

 After a bit of searching which didn’t reveal the bird I suddenly picked out two birders who by the synchronised movements of their cameras were watching the bird flying low amongst some houses and every now again I could clearly see a dark small bird zooming past a white house! I had clearly seen the bird but could I really say I knew what I was watching and tick it? I decided to see if I could digitally document my observation and yes it is possible to document a one pixel wide dot at 3.5km range but the documentation does not help in convincing anyone that it is really a Pallid Swift or even a swift for that matter.

It was nice to look at the pictures that were taken by thepeople I could see watching the dark dot and also some super pictures taken later in the day but they were documenting a level of detail that I had not seen.

I hoped that I could avoid making a decision by taking the ferry over to Nesoddtangen on Sunday morning and joined a few other birders who were also late to the party but the bird had done a bunk (or perhaps perished overnight).

So what to do? I had undoubtedly seen the bird but were the views “tickable”? The temptation to add the bird to my Norwegian and Akershus list was very high (I have seen the bird further south in Europe so it is not a lifer) but I have previously not been backward in expressing my views when others have “ticked” birds based on equally bad views and as I seem to be so concerned with ethics in birding then of course I knew (not so) deep down that I could not add the bird to my official lists no matter how much I wanted to and how easy it would have been to do so.

I’ll have to find one of my own some time although as there have only been about 40 observations in Norway it ain’t an easy species to find.

This still from the video below shows all of the necessary field characters to allow one to safely NOT add the species to your Norwegian list. The bird is so easy to see that the red ring I have added is hardly needed..... Note the two birders who seemed to be having great views and were much easier to see at 3.5km range 

Aker Brygge at 0809 on a chilly Sunday morning as I made my way to the Nesoddtangen ferry

a new view for me as I look from Nesoddtangen towards Oslo. I have looked the opposite way countless times

Brent Geese

The last week has produced some movements of skuas from Brentetangen and elsewhere in Østfold with all four species being seen and on Saturday there was a small passage of Brent Geese (ringgås). As I did the school run today I could feel the wind was strong and a check on the forecast showed that near gale force winds were blowing up the Oslo fjord. I therefore changed my plans and headed for Hulvik in the south of Akershus and hoped that there would be some skuas hanging around at the head of the main fjord unsure what to do next. Although I arrived late (0930) skuas can move throughout the day.

I was unable to find a sheltered watch point and as I settled in I found discovered four things:

1.      The rubber eye cap on a Swarovski telescope is a serious design flaw as my chi was battered black and blue it as it flapped in the wind.

2.      Never underpack on the clothe front when seawatching – it might be June but it still gets cold – I was shivering when I gave up after 2 hours.

3.      Buy a new tripod – the head on my current one no longer locks and is not stable enough

4.      Lesser Black-backed Gulls (sildemåke) really can look like Black-browed Albatrosses when the wind picks up

Three Fulmars (havhest) arching across the fjord and a Little Gull (dvergmåke) were a sure sign that the wind was strong and I felt very sure that I would get multiple skuas. I was however to be disappointed on this score. I did at one stage feel sure I had one as a large dark bird flew quickly north fairly low over the sea but it turned out to be a Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) crossing the fjord at an unusually low height! I did have a real highlight though with a flock of Brent Geese. This is only I think my fourth sighting of this species in Norway and unlike the birds I regularly used to watch migrating from Sussex in the spring these were Pale-bellied Brent Geese. The plae-bellied birds (hrota) belong to the Svalbard breeding population which winter in Denamark and Northumberland and migrate very late. They wait until the last week of May before migrating and have a much faster migration than the Pink-footed Geese that also breed on Svalbard but which migrate already at the end of March with various long stops along the way. The Brent Geese normally up the west coast of Norway after leaving Denmark (the birds that hae overwintered in Northumberland travel to Denmark first) but small numbers turn right instead of left when they hit the bottom of Norway and head up the Oslo fjord [some fascinating reading on the movements of satellite tagged birds in 2011 here including birds that migrated up the Oslofjord and then flew west like todays flock]. Many seem to turn round or head over land before coming so far up the Oslofjord and there are few historic records this far north. My flock clearly didn’t know what it was doing and I picked them very distantly as they flew south out of the Drammen Fjord. They then flew with the wind towards me and started to fly up the Oslo fjord before again changing their mind and heading back towards the Drammen Fjord where I lost sight of them heading in a North West direction over land.

Pale-bellied Brent Geese (ringgås). They were never close! Here heading north up the Oslofjord

here they have turned and are heading south again

After giving the sea 2 hours I went to Nesodden to search for a reported Great Grey Owl (lappugle). As expected Nesodden was a haystack and the owl a needle so I failed miserably although could note that the whole of Nesodden looks good for these owls so there could be flocks of them out there! I did see a Grass Snake and female Roe Deer that only hesitantly ran away from me alerted me to a youngster trying to hide by sitting motionless.

baby Roe Deer

 

Rune...STOP!!

A tale of two emergency stops, 2 hard shoulders, 2 Hawk Owls and a Jay...

Rune and I followed a well trodden path today with Kurefjorden as our destination but with some detours on the way.
Maridalen failed to reveal any Pine Grosbeaks but they are surely still there. The first emergency stop came on the E6 motorway when I had a potential Hawk Owl on top of a spruce. Rune deftly shifted across two lanes, ignored the tooting of other drivers and stopped on the hard shoulder. After my pulse had dropped I was able to look at the bird in question only to find it was a Jay (nøtteskrike) - the third time I have been nearly been so fooled by a Jay.
The Nesodden Hawk Owl showed easily for us although was a bit flighty as it flew from one tall tree to another seemingly in active food mouse locating modus. It did however give me some opportunities to yet again not take good flight photos.

Hawk Owl, Svestad, Nesodden

Hooded Crow and Carrion Crow

We tried for the Moss Hawk Owl but could only manage a Great Grey Shrike (varsler).  We also dropped in to Drøbak and had good views of the Carrion Crow (svartkråke) which looks to be paired with a Hooded Crow (kråke). It will interesting to see what any eventual young look like.

Carrion Crow (svartkråke) Drøbak

Kurefjorden revealed 4 separate Rough-legged Buzzards in the air but little else and driving home we had our second Great Grey Shrike of the day at its usual place along the E6 by Son but all these things were just warming us up for the days undoubted highlight.

Driving past Årungen lake I saw another Jay on a tree top but this one actually did not look like a Jay. Another emergency stop, another hard shoulder and this time success although at distance. With reversing down the hard shoulder being too much to ask even of Rune we had to drive a further km before we could leave the motorway onto a minor road which brought us back to where the owl had been - but where was it? We scanned all visible tree trops and there it was flying over the motorway.

It perched on top of a spruce on the other side of the motorway but seemed to have its attention focused on some rough grass on our side. It then flew back to our side, perched briefly on another tall spruce before flying down hovering, down a bit more, more hovering and then plunge. We couldn't see it on the deck but after about 30 seconds it flew up with a rat sized rodent in its claws. The autofocus of course failed to keep up with all the action so I my attempts to capture the bird flying with prey resulted in just a fuzzy mess. It was however great to see Hawk Owl hunting and this is one of the reasons I have spent so much time with this species the last few weeks as I had only once witnessed an (unsuccesful) hunting attempt before in Finnmark.
This bird seemed to have located its prey across a busy motorway. Due to the long grass I doubt it saw the rat so I assume must have heard it which is amazing when you consider how much noise from the road it had to filter out to hear the rustle from a rodent!

montage of pictures whowing the hunting Hawk Owl. On the right hand side it is hoveringaround 10m above the ground and in the other picture is only a couple of metres above the ground just before its succesful plunge. The motorway is directly behind and below the bird with the spruce trees being on the other side.

I can't resist showing another photo of the Nesodden owl in sunlight