Beans r back

Rain might stop me painting the house but gives good wader conditions. Årnestangen this morning was cooking with over 200 Dunlin but I failed to find anything too rare although a supporting cast of Sanderling, Knot, Turnstone, Little Stint and Curlew Sand amongst others gave me lots to work through. A family of Peregrines made a lot of noise and kept putting the waders up. There were three youngsters with their dad. The dad is a tiny bird in comparison to his offspring (who are probably all females) and must be the same bird I saw on Saturday. No harriers of any sort today although I hope to turn up a Pallid this autumn. Little Gull, White-tailed Eagle, Pochard and Pintail were also good birds.

Two of the tagged Bean Geese have been, according to their signals, back in Akershus since the very early date of 14 August. The plots show they checked out the traditional fields before flying to the NW and settling down in a large area of forest which probably resembles their breeding grounds with small vegetation rich pools. The reason for going there is quite simply that in mid-August the fields have not yet been harvested so are unsuitable. A third tagged bird turned round and headed back towards Sweden whilst the fourth (and final) tagged bird stayed in Sweden much longer before heading for Norway this week. After a day in the same area of forest he moved to the traditional area a couple of days ago. I went up there today without any live plots to know exactly where to look but as it was the middle of the day checked out the peat bog which is traditionally used in the middle of the day. The birds saw me before I saw them and started calling. I saw some heads sticking up at least 200 m away and stopped to put up the scope. The birds were very wary though and flew up though and took with them another group (I have noticed before that these birds are far more wary in the autumn than the spring for reasons that I’m not sure about although I have wondered whether they are subject to (illegal) hunting in August. There were exactly 50 birds and they flew around calling looking very unsure as to where to go (suggesting very newly arrived). I took lots of long range pictures which show three neck collars plus a bird with only a metal leg ring. Of the three neck collars one was a GPS collar and this bird had a green leg ring showing him to be the same tagged bird (10) that had recently moved to the area. The flock should build up over the next week or so and the harvest has just begun in the area so stubble fields will soon be available.
A real surprise was a Woodlark which flew up in front of and perched really well but vanished into thin air whilst I took my camera out of the bag.

The final good bird of the day was a roadside adult Hobby that was chasing Crows. I'm not sure if this was for the fun of it or whether there were young Hobbies nearby but he eventually drifted off.

The taiga Bean Geese (sædgås) at long range (uncropped with 500mm) just before they flew up. Note the bird with a completely orange bill. I have noted this or a similar bird in the flock before and it has on at least one occasion been mistakenly reported as a Greylag

the two groups joined up and flew around calling loudly and seemingly unsure as to what there next move should be. I make it exactly 50 birds

more experienced eyes than mine might be able to age the birds from this shot showing upperwings?

the three neck collared birds. The right hand bird has a GPS collar and a green leg ring showing him to be 10. The two other birds have enscribed neck collars but my pictures do not allow them to be read. I believe the birds to be a pair

here it is just possible to see "10" on the collar of the upper bird plus the green leg ring. The other bird has a metal leg ring but has lost its neck collar

adult Hobby (lerkefalk)

montage of it chasing a Crow

and another montage

briefly landing

the waders at Årnestangen were frequently in the air because of...



..a family of Peregrines including this youngster which still had a lot to learn

Dunlin (myrsnipe), Little Stint (dvergsnipe) and Sanderling (sandløper)

At least 500 Cormorants are clearly finding lots of fish at Årnestangen

and keep heading off in squadrons when they feel the need for food

 

Beans back!

Today I reacquainted myself with my dear fabalis friends after we had been apart for 147 days.

 It nearly didn’t happen though. I drove up to the chosen fields this morning to look for them only to find that they had yet to be harvested. I drove to various fields finding them all with high crops which I doubt the birds would land in although I was thwarted from driving to one favoured autumn field as there were roadworks. Not finding them on the fields I was in half a mind to drive home as 3 September is still an early date and the birds weren’t necessarily back yet but I thought I would drive up to the peat bog at Flakstadmåsen/Johdalsmåsen which was proven to be used regularly as a day time loafing site daily in the autumn. On my way I saw a flock of geese in flight going down on the field that I had not been able to drive to. Parking the car I walked there and sure enough there was a flock of geese and they were Taiga (fabalis) Bean Geese!! I had not taken my scope and struggled to get good views in the bins at a range of 200m but counted 60 birds and could see one with a gps/radio neck collar (unfortunately these are no longer transmitting) and one with an inscribed neck collar but it was not possible to see any details. I fired off some pictures though hoping to be able to read the inscription on the PC later. The geese were feeding on the far side of the field against the woodland edge which seems to nearly always be there want. These geese are truly wild geese unlike the majority of other geese in these parts which are feral and they were very wary with birds always on look out. They flushed possibly due to me (although I was 200 metres away) and flew a couple of circuits before flying right over my head (not particularly smart if they are the subject of illegal hunting) and I took loads of pictures which has allowed me to identify the ringed birds.

This flock flew off to the north in the general direction of the peat bog and I headed for the car. On my way to the car I heard geese and a flock was coming in from the south. The flock was roughly the size but they couldn’t be the same birds - surely. They flew low over the field calling before also heading north to the bog. Now I really needed to go to the bog – something desperate!

 When I arrived I heard geese but they are very difficult to find here in what must be similar habitat to their breeding grounds. I eventually saw some birds sticking their heads up but no more than 60 birds so it didn’t look like there were 2 flocks although I could see 5 birds with neck collars which didn’t correspond with the feeding flock earlier. After nearly an hour the birds took flight and suddenly there were a lot more than 60 birds - 118 bird to be precise after counting from the photos I took. So there were 2 flocks after all. The birds flew North West this time looking to head for a field which I have never seen them on but we know from the GPS tracking that they have used before.

So autumn is well and truly upon us and as if to confirm it, Jon Olav Larsen has been the first birder to visit Værøy this year and had the first Yellow-browed Warblers of the autumn plus even more exciting Værøy’s first ever Arctic Warbler – only 13 days to go until I am there……….

the first flock feeding in exactly the same field where we had the first ever autumn record (thanks to the GPS tags) in September 2013

7P

here the bird with GPS collar flies over and proves to have a black leg ring showing it to be 07

7P in flight. I wonder if the groups of three birds in these two photos are family groups

Flakstadmåsan. Can you see the geese?

7P again

7U

6U

6S plus I also saw 6Z

the best photo I managed

the orange legs can be so noticeable!

anyone know what grasshopper this is? The spike at its rear end is interesting but does this mean it is a female?

Bean owling

I'm quite happy with yesterday even though things didn’t turn out completely as planned. There were two goals for the day: help understand more about the Bean Geese and find some owls!

The latest GPS data I received on the geese yesterday showed that they were again using Flakstadmåsen, the peat bog that they favoured last autumn. Per Christian and I got there just after lunch (after having found a couple of early Woodlarks (trelerke) back at the stake out and a Great Grey Shrike (varsler) nearby) and immediately had 6 Beans flying in from the NE. They lost height and circled a couple of times but then headed off East. I took this to mean there were no other geese on the deck but five minutes later we found a very well hidden group of 18 Bean and one Pink-footed. Amongst them was "7P" who I had photographed on Monday. These geese were sleeping/resting rather than feeding which might suggest this site is being used this spring as an alternative loafing site since the sandbank on the river is under water. At the field at Neskollen we had just two Beans and none at all on the fields at Horgen or on the river. So where are the other geese? Either on some of the small "hidden" fields they have taken to using or have they moved on? As usual I await for the next set of GPS data to answer dome of the questions (and raise a whole load of new ones).

The peat bog at Flakstadmåsen which is in danger of being dug up. The geese are just visible in the middle

The geese. "7P" is in the middle

We headed on towards Hedmark (home of the big owls). Along the way we encountered over 500 Whooper Swans (sangsvane) but disappointingly no Bewick’s and no geese other than Canadas.

We arrived at our Eagle Owl (hubro) site at 1730 which was an hour earlier than I expected the owls to perform. As I got my dinner out PC walked 100m from the car before running back all smiling and asking if I had seen it? He had seen it in flight along a nearby ridge. Immediately it started singing whilst nearby ridges were still bathed in sunlight!! I then saw it in flight as it moved a short distance but we couldn't relocate it and it then was silent before starting singing again at 1800. PC then picked it up as a distant silhouette in a tree top where it stayed and sang until we left 30 minutes later. The views weren’t great but it was fantastic to hear this, the largest of the owls again.

Eagle Owl!

in flight

We then headed off into the deep Hedmark forests close to the Swedish border hoping for lots of owls of all sizes! Hearing Tengmalm’s (perleugle) on our first stop was very encouraging but things fizzled out after that. We didn’t hear Ural (slagugle) at either of two known breeding sites from last year, and apart from just one more Tengmalm’s had no other owls at all which was quite a disappointment especially knowing we had a three hour drive back to Oslo. A Long-eared Owl (hornugle) flying over the road as we neared Oslo was a slight reward for our efforts.

The days oddest sight. This moose had fallen through the ice. The locals were trying to work out how to get it out

Here we see how it has stuggled through the ice before eventually coming to a halt - it was presumably scared or would have turned round?

Geesing

I set off today to look again for the Bean Geese (sædgås) and see if I could locate more than the 144 I counted on Thursday. I counted 143 so I think we can put that down to counting error rather than a real decrease in numbers

part of the Bean Goose (sædgås) flock taking off from Flakstadmåsen

There were no geese on the stubble field at Neskollen so I continued up to the second feeding location identified from the satellite tag at Flakstadmåsen. This is a large peat bog (over 1km in diameter) with some commercial peat extraction at the northern end but in the southern end looking very much like a bog that you would expect in a taiga forest – fitting for a taiga Bean Goose.

When I arrived at 0840 there were no geese to be seen and I searched the whole bog often sinking up to my ankles. I found a few feathers which I assume to be from Bean Geese but only a couple of droppings so began to wonder if only a few birds rather than the whole flock had been using the bog and a couple of juvenile Peregrines (vandrefalk) that were flying around calling could well have frightened off any geese. The bog also held a male Merlin (dvergfalk) and my first Great Grey Shrike (varsler) of the autumn and had a very good feel about it with Crossbills (grankorsnebb) flying over and Willow Tits (granmeis) and Crested Tits (toppmeis) calling from the edges. Just after 0920 when I was making my way back to the car I heard geese and turned round to see a large flock flying in. From my pictures I was able to count 144. They initially landed but as I tried to watch them half the flock flew up even though I was still at over 200 metres range. These birds flew around calling for over 5 minutes whilst I pulled back even further. The rest of the flock then took off and joined them and after a few minutes all flew off north although a flock of four soon turned round and headed off south.

From my photos I was also able to read a couple of neck rings and identify three birds from the colour of their leg rings. It is good to be able to contribute something to the research project.

in this picture there are four birds with satellite/gps collars of which two have visible colour leg rings and there are two neck collared birds although it is not possible to read the codes with 100% certainty

here you can see some birds feeding on the bog including neck collar 3X

After trying unsuccessfully to relocate I made my way to Hellesjøvannet picking up a few Buzzards (musvåk), a Merlin and a Kestrel (tårnfalk) on the way. At Hellesjøvannet there was a huge feeding flock of 1300 Greylag Geese (grågås). I have no idea where such large numbers come from and saw no colour rings to help me find out. Also here 75 Pochards (taffeland) and a number of family parties of Great Crested Grebes which still had small young and will not fledge for weeks. There were a number of pipits and wagtails in the fields here. I heard two Red-throated Pipits (lappiplerke) but only saw one distantly in flight. Yellow Wagtails (gulerle) showed much better around the feet of some cows and showed off the amazing range of plumages they show in the autumn.

Various other other pictures from today:

light morph Common Buzzard (musvåk). These birds are very striking and equally confusing and have been claimed as all manor of rare raptors over the years

can you see my first Great Grey Shrike of the year?

juvenile Peregrine (vandrefalk)

Sparrowhawk

Yellow Wagtails presumably of the race thunbergi showing a variety of plumages

juvenile Yellow Wagtail - a particularly cold bird with very prominent white supercilium and throat.

another juvenile with slightly less promient supercilium

a much yellower juvenile