Gannet

Yesterday’s wind died off during the night and today was a very calm and warm day. I thought that a trip out to the islands could pay dividends with hopefully there being left over seabirds hanging around plus the chance of an interesting passerine or two (the southerly winds should bring something with them).

There were far fewer seabirds than I expected with most having probably left at first light (or overnight) and a report of 3 Great Skuas heading south (including a great photo of one) from Drøbak confirms this. My trip was not in vain though.

I got good views of Lesser Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, saw the long staying 2cy male King Eider again and now in a much smarter plumage that is starting to warrant the noble name. I also had a Red-necked Grebe in the same place as the bird I found at the end of August and which was last reported on 18 September, but this bird was in winter plumage and with no signs of juvenile features and therefore a new bird. A single Fulmar on the sea was swimming quite strongly but the complete lack of wind probably meant it had no real desire to fly. Bird of the day was an adult Gannet which I stumbled upon on land. Cleary sick or injured its wings were hanging but it could flap them. I thought I would try to capture it and take it to the water where I thought it would have a better chance of surviving. I was worried about the bill though and decided I would throw my jacket over the bird to hopefully calm it down and also allow me to hold the bill. I did not feel entirely confident with this strategy but as I moved towards the bird it showed that it still had quite a bit of energy left and flapped its way towards the water. It did first become stuck in a bush! but freed itself and then made it to the water. To be honest I don’t rate its chances but I view things like this as the way of nature and do not think there is any point in calling people who offer help with injured birds. I saw no obvious injuries and there was no plastic around the bill, wings or legs so the bird could just have been ill for natural reasons.

close up of a Gannets (havsule) eye 

this is where I found the bird

although it had droopy wings at times it did seem strong and made a lot of noise when I got too close. I am not sure whether it is oil or other much on its breast

here it is sitting with its wings properly folded

there was no obvious injury or plastic/fishing line impeding the bird 

once it was on the water it looked to be in better shape although if it cannot fly then it will have problems feeding

Fulmar (havhest)

2cy male King Eider (praktærfugl) that is now looking a lot smarter

female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett)

Red-necked Grebe (gråstrupedykker) looks to be an adult

juvenile Red-throated Diver (smålom)

Green Woodpecker - the grey feathers on the head show it to be a 1cy and the black moustache a female

Better seawatching

The winds became even more favourable yesterday afternoon with them being pure southerly and up to storm force. I positioned myself at Krokstrand for nearly six hours using the car as a base to seek cover during the frequent deluges. Things started well with the first rain storm bringing with it a load of Gannets and Fulmars with both of these species then being seen regularly after this with a single group of 38 Gannets and 8 Fulmar seen on a single sweep although estimating the total numbers was very difficult because I think I was seeing the same birds circling around during the whole period (others take a far less conservative approach though and would have probably reported at least twice the numbers I did).

With Gannets and Fulmars being such proper seabirds then I was expecting other species, but a single Kittiwake and a few auks was it!! This is clearly a sign that there were very few birds in the outer Oslofjord in the first place and sites further south had a bit more variety but no large numbers with especially Kittiwake being surprisingly scarce. The winds continued until around midnight before becoming more westerly and this must have pushed in more birds because people who were watching from dawn in Østfold today had Cory’s, Sooty and Manx Shearwaters all heading south and out of the fjord.

I leave for Værøy on Monday but I have to be honest and say that expectations are not high. With the current weather forecast I am not even sure I will see Yellow-browed Warbler and our sights are set more on seabirds and a yankee or two.

Fulmar (havhest) - there was areal swell today and the Fulmars were shearing around

13 or so Gannets (havsuler) from a single group of 38

some closer Gannets

and the days only Kittiwake (krykkje)

Some seawatching

Since Sunday there have strong southerly winds blowing up the Oslo Fjord. I had a quick look from Krokstrand yesterday morning without seeing a single sea bird but sightings from further south showed that birds were moving and when the forecast changed and the winds were forecast to continue today I decided to give Hulvik a go. It took a long time to get there due to the rolling programme of tunnel work that is going on in Norway but at 0950 I was in place. The wind was strong and from the south, the light was good and approaching heavy rain clouds were also welcome as they can often bring birds with them. And birds there were. In the distance, I could see lots and lots of Gannets and as the rain clouds approached so did the birds. There were at least 200 out there and I have never seen such numbers here before.

The first good bird I had was an enormous Great Northern Diver that was heading south. Soon after this I got a message from ca.20km south at Brentetangen that lots of birds including Manx Shearwater and Great Skua were heading north. That was good motivation to keep scanning. Before any of those appeared, I had a tick! When, on Friday, I listed the “easy” species that I had yet to see in Norway I forgot to mention Sandwich Tern and that was what I saw today. Long range scope views so no photos of what may well be my 300^th Norwegian species (or 299^th depending on which list I look at).

After this a Great Skua showed and then in front of a rain storm a Manxie showed very briefly but disappeared from view in the rain plus I had to run for cover. Whilst seeking cover under trees I could see that loads of Gannets were heading north in the rain and I hoped that the shearwater had also done the same. After the rain stopped the Gannets came south again but no shearwater unfortunately. About this time Zak turned up and in addition to the Gannets we enjoyed a Great Skua that came through at relatively close range. After this though things really slowed down and even the Gannets evaporated. But what (by local standards) a seawatch I had had! There were very few other birds though, not even commoner gulls. I had two commic terns, a Razorbill and a Hobby so if it wasn’t for the large numbers of Gannets it would have been long and far between birds.

What with the distances and the rain it is amazing I took any pictures but Gannets and one of the Bonxies cames close enough for an attempt at a record shot.

I reckon this just about counts as a record shot. Great Skua/Bonxie/Storjo

some of the Gannets that started heading north ahead of a rain storm

adult Gannet

a younger bird probably a 2cy

Seawatching still disappointing

Skuas (joer) started moving up the Norwegian coast yesterday with a good southerly tail wind and those southerly winds continued today so it would surely be a good day to be at Brentetangen? I awoke an hour before my alarm at 03:30 and after a bit of tossing and turning decided to get up and make some food and coffee and head off. I arrived at 0500 to find that some mist meant that views were not great but the wind was fresh so I sat down and shock horror discovered I had left my coffee at home – crisis! Luckily I soon had some coffee carrying company and could steal some coffee. And I needed it because excitement on the bird front was not going to keep me awake. In just under 4 hours we had 1180 Common Scoter (svartand) which were moving in a northerly direction but kept landing on the water and were perhaps just resting birds that had been disturbed by boats. This is a good total but was not matched with good numbers of anything else. Just 10 Red-throated Divers (smålom), 30 Velvet Scoters (sjøorre), 2 Pintail (stjertand) and 1 Black-throated Diver (storlom) moved north and 7 Gannets (havsule) heading south.

Kurefjorden surprised with good numbers of waders but the vast majority of these flew off north whilst I was there. This shows how one has to be a bit lucky at this time of the year and also confirms how criminal the raising of water levels in Nordre Øyeren is as there is clearly a lot of migrating waders at the moment. I had 47 Redshank (rødstilk), 3 Greenshank (grønnstilk), 16 Ringed Plover (sandlo), 6 Dunlin (myrsnipe) and 8 Bar-tailed Godwits (lappspove).

Dotterels were not to be found today although there were a few Golden Plovers (heilo).

With low cloud I did not expect to see raptors today but we twice had a male Kestrel (tårnfalk) heading low over the sea at Brentetangen and this was probably a local breeding bird, we also had Marsh Harrier (sivhauk) slowly heading north, plus I had another Kestrel, a Buzzard (musvåk) and best of all my first Honey Buzzard (vepsevåk) of the year migrating north.

a very photogenic female Lapwing (vipe) that was probably and unfortunately a failed breeder

the migrating Marsh Harrier (sivhauk)

all the birds at Kurefjorden reacted as though there was a raptor at one stage and here I have captured Whimbrel , Bar-tailed Godwits and Pink-footed Geese

Whimbrel

the view from Brentetangen over to the Vestfold side of the fjord (4km) with2 Gannets Passing by

 

See sea

I chose to gaze at the waters off Hulvik today. Although the winds were not strong I hoped there might be a few birds that had chosen to flee from the storms further south in Sweden. Well, there were a few birds but no real movement. Gannets (havsule) are always nice to see though and there were at least 12 flying around including a tight group of seven. A couple of Kittiwakes (krykkje) were also results of the winds. Hardly any auks though which are normally a feature at this time of the year.

A Gannet (havsule) seen looking south west from Hulvik

38 Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis) flying south in groups of 13 and 25 were unusual and largest bird of the day goes to a White-tailed Eagle seen on the other side of the fjord at many kilometres distance.

The forecast suggests Thursday may give another chance of more than just sea to see.

Photos from Nordland

Here are a selection of photos from around Bodø and Værøy.

11:55pm looking north from Værøy- the sun shines strongly

midnight. The sun sets (real midnight sun is restricted to a few days at the end of June at this latitude)

First some of the different Lesser Black-backed Gulls (sildemåke). First off, the fuscus from Valnes, notice the dark wings without any real border to the black wing tips.

presumed fuscus Lesser Black-backed Gull

presumed fuscus Lesser Black-backed Gull - notice how the light can change the appearance of the upperparts

Some from Værøy:

A fairly easy graellsii

An obvious graellsii in the middle with a Herring Gull (gråmåke) on the right and a darker LBBG on the left which I take to be an intermedius.

A difficult bird which could be dark graellsii or pale intermedius.

Another difficult bird which was quite small and cute so probably a female. The flight shot shows significant contract between the wing and wing tips so this is a graellsii I reckon. Also the photo was taken at 10pm so the grey back probably looked darker than it would have looked in the middle of the day.

I’ve read that the intermedius types in northern Norway might be the result of hybridisation between fuscus and graellsii. I don’t know about this but I can say that LBBG’s come in the whole range of colours up here. I also saw one dark graellsii type seemingly paired with a Herring Gull which could result in some even more difficult looking offspring.
EDIT: of course I had not considered the possibility of HEUGLINI when I wrote the original entry. I don't believe there are proven records of this sub-species in Norway but it is probably just as likely at this latitude and longitude as Graellssi

Some other pictures:

Killer Whale (spekkhogger)

3 Killer Whales including a youngster

Otter

Common Seal

Also some scenic botanical shots from Værøy

A pale Whimbrel (småspove) – Slender-billed Curlew look alike

A group of five young Pintails (stjertand)

1k Pintails - the green on the wing of the right-hand bird shows it to be a males

The lack of green shows this bird to be a female

Gannet (havsule)

Gannet and Fulmar (havhest)

Juvenile Herring Gull