Many wing bars

Today (Wednesday) was our last day in the mountains and whilst the girls enjoyed a final ski I enjoyed sunny and warm conditions with much less wind than yesterday. Crossbills were obvious today and there were lots of 2BCs! I saw at least 3 pairs and they were singing and courtship feeding so it looks like they will at least attempt to breed here which will be one of only a handful of breeding records ever recorded in the Norwegian bird record database. I had an equal number of Common Crossbills and they were also in pairs. There is a very heavy crop of cones on the spruce trees and the spruce forests extend as far as the eye can see so there is likely to be a very large number of crossbills breeding in this area.

I had both male and female 2BCs singing which is not mentioned in BWP although it is mentioned for Common Crossbill. This time use of playback did result in one pair coming to investigate but does not seem to be a particularly useful method for locating this species. I located most of the birds walking slowly around the area and listening for them as they were quite vocal and by the end of the morning I had become proficient in separating Common and Two-barred on their normal (non trumpet) call. They are a pretty confiding species although due to the deep snow I was reliant on them being close to the road and on the right side of the tree of which eventually both a male and a female (although from different pairs) eventually obliged.

On the way home we stopped at a fjord where I had been told there were a pair of Mandarins and sure enough they were there among 60 or so Mallards. It was quite a barren fjord and not so easy to understand what was keeping them here.

male 2BC in the sun

female 2BC

courtship feeding

male in profile

curious female

both crossbills and Waxwings have barbed tongues which must come in useful when feeding

 

 

male Common and Two barred Crossbills. Even when the wing bars are not on show the difference in the red colour allows them to be separated

male Mandarin

pair

Mountain landscapes

It is getting quite windy in the mountains but today there was sun. Despite this there were still no soaring eagles and unfortunately no photo opportunities to equal yesterdays with the crossbills which with the sun could have resulted in some smashing pics. The Crossbills were quite obvious in the morning with Common flying around calling and a couple of males singing. I did not see any 2BCs perched but heard them a few times and had a single bird and then a pair flying around. Come the afternoon when the wind died down for an hour or so the crossbills all seemed to have vanished but were I assume just busily feeding somewhere.
I only had one bird photo that is worth sharing but the landscape pictures aren't too bad.

female Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb)

 

Better Crossbills

No soaring eagles today as the area was decked in low cloud which combined with a fresh wind made it quite unpleasant outside (temperature was -7C) and a 5mm thick layer of ice covered everything. With the appropriate clothes on though I took the kids out tobogganing and snow hole excavating and had my ears cocked for any sound of birds. There was not much to hear but eventually I did hear crossbills and located a small group not far away in some small trees. I collected the camera and was able to get close. A pair of Common Crossbills had the company of a (the?) male Two-barred Crossbill and whilst feasting my eyes at less than 10 metres range I could hear that there had to be another 2BC and sure enough a female joined the male. The male yesterday seemed to be alone so these may well have been new birds. Either way I enjoyed the couple of minutes they gave me before they moved on.

Later in the day whilst trying to relocate them (unsuccessfully) a Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) shot over my head with a couple of very agitated Common Crossbills flying away from it – a shot of a Pygmy Owl with a red male Crossbill in its claws would surely classify as a money shot?

 

pair of 2BC - great birds

the female - probably a 2cy due to quite thin white tips to the tertials

the male is an adult with thick white tips to the tertials

male Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb)

female Common Crossbill

 

More Crossbills

We are spending a few days with friends at a cabin in the ski resort of Gaustadblikk which is 3 hours drive south west of Oslo in Telemark County. We are a lot higher here than where I was in Hedmark on Thursday but the woodland is quite similar with scattered and generally short spruce trees which have a heavy cone crop and also have attracted a few Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb). I am unable to ski due to my knee so instead birded around the cabin. The area immediately in front of the cabin was for some reason a magnet for Crossbills and I had at least 10 Common Crossbills here throughout the day. Whilst sitting on the water closet after breakfast I heard a trumpet call outside. I finished up as quickly as I could and rushed outside to again here the trumpet but I was unable to locate the bird which had to be a 2BC (although I am a bit wary given a previous run in with a trumpeting Common Crossbill). I tried playing the calls of both 2BC (båndkorsnebb) and Common Crossbill which I have read work very well and are used in census work but seemed to not to work for me. I walked around the area and had little else. Once back at the cabin I regularly checked outside and mid afternoon a Crossbill sitting atop a spruce had wing bars! I have now recorded 2BC in three counties in 2015 which isn’t bad going.

There was quite low cloud today but I have high hopes for Golden Eagle here if we get better weather in the coming days. The drive from Oslo took us through some great forest habitat and a male Hazel Grouse (jerpe) sitting in snow by the side of the road was a most welcome if fleeting observation.

 

male 2BC (båndkorsnebb)



This more distant view shows the white tips to the tertials not visible in the closer picture

male Common Crossbill. In addition to lacking the white wing bars its more of an orange red compared to the pink red of the 2BC