Taiga guiding

This weekends guiding had me praying to the Bird Gods and wondering what I had done to displease them before eventually being giving their slightly limited blessing.

Martyn, Jo and Stella had come to Oslo to see our special winter birds and especially Hawk Owl and I was determined they would leave happy.

On Saturday the target was the specialities of Maridalen and surrounding forests and on Sunday it was the taiga areas of Hedmark. 

Saturday was sunny, windless and cold with temperatures down to -20C in the forest and on Sunday it was forecast to be same but ended up being cloudy with occasional snow and temperatures down to -23C. We experienced near white out conditions a couple of times when we were in low cloud and whilst cool to experience it was not the best conditions for finding birds.

On Saturday the targets were Hazel Grouse, Pygmy Owl and interesting woodpeckers. Hazel Grouse took an hour and a half and just as we were about to head back to the car empty handed I had one last attempt and finally a bird sang. It then took another 15 minutes to find the bird but it then sat directly above us in a tree and was so unaffected by our presence that it never even looked down at us.

Otherwise, the forest was very quiet with no peckers of any type.

Maridalen gave us Crested and Willow Tits, Goshawk, Dipper and Hawfinch and eventually Pygmy Owl which showed very well but far too briefly.

So, the two main targets were delivered but peckers disappointed.

 

Sunday we had a two hour drive to the taiga and I kept hoping the forecast sun would appear the further north we drove but instead we just saw lower and lower cloud. The forests were covered in thick snow but where were the birds?!? We slowly drove the forest roads for over 4 hours and saw only 11 species and only around 40 individual birds of which Bullfinches made up half of these…. 

For a long time a female Capercaille was the top bird before a Three-toed ‘pecker gave itself up but far too briefly and partly made up for the lack of peckers the day before but we still failed to see a Black. But where were the taiga species? Hawk Owl (which was the #1 priority for the whole weekend, Pine Grosbeak and Sibe Jay?

People were dozing off in the car but I was still searching for a lump on a tree top and FINALLY a Hawk Owl gave itself up. Only 30 metres from the road it showed just long enough for me to set up the scope so its yellow eyes could be studied before stooping down and never reappearing. That was the last bird we saw in the forest and a fitting end to the trip but I would have liked to be able to find Grosbeak and Sibe Jay. It wasn’t through lack of trying and if the sun had been shining then I think we would have had more birds perching on tree tops but we play with the cards we are dealt with.

 

Pictures were not my priority but here is a flavour of the weekend.

watching Hawkie

can you spot him?

a bit more recognisable here

the football in a tree is "my" Hazel Grouse

very close but he never lifted his head and looked at us!

female Capercaille (storfugl)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

and a Three-toed 'pecker leaving stage right

Early trip to the mountains

the view from Venabu towards Rondane. There should be lots more snow at this time of the year

At the weekend I joined Per Christian for a trip to his cabin in the mountains of Ringebu, 3 hours drive north of Oslo. This was a repeat of a very enjoyable trip in 2022.

 

On the way up we stopped at Starene which is such a great place and I so wish it was closer to Oslo. There were close to 1000 Pink-footed Geese and amongst them we picked out 3 Tundra Beans. The real highlight though was when a young White-tailed Eagle flew in. It flew slowly over the geese, before almost hovering at about 30m altitude and then diving into the panicking geese. Amazingly it took one in flight and then landed with it just out of sight for us (due to a ridge in the field). For some reason it soon flew up minus the goose so presumably the goose somehow escaped the eagle talons once they were on the deck.

Ebird checklist here.

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) with a Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås)

the flooded fields at Starene with Pink-footed Geese above them

 

After this we visited the Taiga Beans at their second Norwegian staging post. This site is rarely visited but is in fact just as traditional as the one closer to Oslo and they also use a far more limited area here with just the same couple of fields used each year. They were mixed in with some Pink-feet and difficult to see but there were ca.80 birds so presumably the whole flock was there and I saw the two with neck collars.

 

After this we went owling. A stop at a Ural Owl nestbox revealed no birds but the thermal imager strongly suggested there was a bird inside. After this we then intended to see lots of Great Grey Owls as we drove forest tracks at dusk. That wasn’t to be the case though and we had precious few other birds which was also to be the case at the cabin. The cabin is at about 950 metres and as expected there was still snow but not very much and there were many bare patches in the mountains. But neither in the mountains or down in the valley could we find many birds over the weekend. No grouse of any kind, and just a few Mistle Thrushes and Chaffinches of migrants. A single Siberian Jay on the feeders at the cabin was of course much appreciated but it was a brief visit and a Golden Eagle was very distant. We also went owling in the area and had definite plans to hear Eagle Owl. The owl was not aware of our plans though but a Tengmalm’s did show well and we had a daytime  Hawk Owl.

On the way back a stop at the Lågendelta in Lillehammer gave a few early migrant waterbirds with 4 Rock Pipits being the highlight.

Ebird checklist here.

the White-tailed Eagle hovering above the geese

and the stooping

it then singled out a bird

this is about a minute later when it flew up prey less

a closer up of the geese as they flew around following the eagle putting them all up

after the geese eventually settled there were quite a few Barnacles (hvitkinngjess) and three Tundra Beans (tundrasædgås) amongst the Pink-feet

same bird

and a second bird with its orange feet allowing it to be easily picked out from the Pink-feet

Taiga Bean Geese in the damp corner of a stubble field where there was rough grassland - a typical habitat

this bird was very distinctive and had me thinking 2cy Greenland White-front for a bit due to all orange bill, slight white around the bill and dark plumage

here it is again. It was a very large bird though so must have been a Taiga Bean but I cannot remember having seen it before

3 Taiga Beans and a Pink-foot

a mixture

Siberian Jay (lavskrike)

Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle)

Hawk Owl

northern lights over Lillehamer

and a much weaker display over the mountains

Migrants and lingering Hawk Owl

We have now had two nights without frost and along with southerly winds I have been expecting a flood of migrants. Of course, that has not been the case and viz mig has been a particular disappointment with just a few flocks of Pink-footed Geese, 2 Cranes and a Kestrel. I had a real hope for a few raptors but it is clearly still too early still (and I have this “surprise” every year at this time….).

 

Despite the lack of viz mig there has been an arrival of new birds. Dunnocks and Redwings are suddenly back and singing from woodland, White and Grey Wagtail are suddenly wagging away and there are considerably more Lapwing, Mistle Thrushes, Chaffinches, Bramblings and a large Twite flock in Maridalen. Surprisingly though there are no Robins back yet but that must happen soon.

The Hawk Owl has been showing very well as it exploits a rich source of Bank Voles (klatremus) and I was very happy to be able to film it dismembering and then eating one.

 

A trip to Østensjøvannet was very birdy with lots of noisy gulls and various wildfowl with a pair of Smew being the absolute highlight.

The video I have long wanted to capture showing the beheading, entrails removing and swallowing of a vole

Hawkie on a wire

and on its way down for what ended up being an unsuccessful vole hunt

this video has a few sequences with it giving its call that I also heard frequently when it first turned up in November

male Smew (lappfiskand)

pair

and with a Grey Heron (gråhegre)

3 male Teal (krikkand)

and a close of up another bird

the Heron was not at all popular with the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke)

Goosander (laksand) are also back

3 species of returning gulls on the ice and 2 male Goosander

Grey Wagtail (vintererle) is back in the Dale

as is Dunnock (jernspurv)

and Redwing (rødvingetrost)

and a large flock of Twite (bergirisk) is having a stop off on its migration

and the first White Wagtail (linerle) of the year

not in Maridalen and not a good picture but I cannot remember capturing Parrot (furukorsnebb) and Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) together before

Canada and Greylag Geese in Maridalen suddenly became very alert when this fox appeared