Touring

I had a bit of a tour today in temperatures down to -14C. The initial aim was to get some good photos of Three-toed Woodpecker on Jeløy near Moss. Before I got so there though I had unseasonal Buzzard and Kestrel along the motorway. Once on Jeløy a flock of finches flew up from beside the road. A quick stop revealed 80 Common Redpolls and the opportunity I have been looking for to grill a flock for an Arctic. They were in constant motion looking for seeds but I soon saw a bird that even without seeing rump or undertail coverts screamed Arctic. It was very pale with seemingly unstreaked flanks and a notably small bill. I endeavoured to take some photos which I managed but only afterwards did I realise that the ISO was set to 3200 so quality was far from what I could have been. The pictures though do confirm that I did have an Arctic. They may well have been more but the ever moving flock was difficult to grill and a Sparrowhawk made them jittery. I look forward to finding more flocks of Redpolls and a chance for better pictures.

My search for the Three-toe was in vain. I chased up every tapping sound I heard but found only Great Spotted Woodpeckers and Nuthatches. The mixed woodland here is full of rotting trees and has a very high density of birds with many tits and finches. After giving it an hour and half I set off back towards Oslo. I followed the same route that had given me three Great GreyShrikes four weeks ago and this time had only one but this was the bird which I didn’t manage to photograph last time and this time I did get a photo.

I twitched a Little Grebe at Drøbak which showed well alongside Mallards and had a stop at Østensjøvannet when I got back to Oslo. Here the birds are managing to keep two tiny area of water ice free and all the usual suspects were still present.

looking south over the Oslofjord from Jeløy 10:44

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik) on the left and inset along with Common Redpolls (gråsisik). Note the white unstreaked flanks, tiny bill, straw coloured head and breast with greyer back.

in flight the extensive white rump is obvious

this bird is possibly a different individual but is also an Arctic. Note the seemingly complete white undertail coverts

Great Grey Shrike (varsler). The black bill, solid lore and clean underparts show this to be an adult

Little Grebe (dvergdykker) with Mallard

the larger area of open water at Østensjøvannet (the other area is under a road bridge).

the deformed young Coot is amazingly still alive. It is still a long way from acquiring adult plumage (will it ever?) and its plumage is in such a poor state that water freezes on it. It must be a born survivor



the hybrid Mallard x Wigeon has unsurprisingly been enveloped by some sweaty human palms. Of course it was necessary to ring it such that it can be told apart from the hordes of other similar looking hybrids........ Having it in the hand may have been useful for documenting its plumage in detail (from my research this would appear to be a slightly unusual look for this hybrid) but I have not seen any pictures published yet.

a yellowy legged Herring Gull (gråmåke) with a normal pink legged bird

the female Pintail looked to be in good form today with no shivering of the wings

another shot with the wrong camera settings although I could claim this was an intentional attempt at art...

Still searching

Birding really is quite difficult at the moment. A trip to Jeløy today where I specifically hoped to find Three-toed Woodpecker resulted in only six Great Spots. I walked the forest listening for tapping and discovered that old creaking trees can do quite good woodpecker impressions. I stood by one fallen tree that was leaning on another tree for about three minutes convinced that I was just blind and there was a woodpecker somewhere above me but in the end had to accept it was just the tree making the noise.

One definite highlight today though was that my Great Grey Shrike (varsler) radar is back in working order and I had two roadside birds along the E6 motorway in Akershus. Both birds were at regular sites for this species from previous winters.

The camera yet again remained warm and unused in my bag although back home I did take this photo of a partially leucistic Fieldfare (gråtrost). I initially thought the bird had snow on its head but closer inspection revealved that not to be the case....

partially leucistic Fieldfare (gråtrost)

There has also been a partially leucistic male House Sparrow in the garden for the last couple of years and I felt inspired to document this bird too. Leucism is a pigment problem which birds occasionally show and often results in white feathers although is not the same albinoism. It is often symmetric which is also the case on these two birds.

the best picture I could manage of the House Sparrow. The same leucism is shown on both wings and occurs on a single greater feather plus all the medium coverts. There are also some paler (although not white) feathers in the mantle.

Three-toed Woodpecker

Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) is widespread in Norway in its preferred habitat of mature spruce forest. It is however unobtrusive and occurs at low densities. This helps explain why it took me 10 years to see my first bird and that I have only seen one since (plus one heard drumming). On the flip side it is completely unshy and allows close approach such that when you do see one you normally see it well.
Another reason I have seen so few 3 toes is that I have rarely made a specific attempt to see one. Today though was different: birds has frequented a relatively small area of mixed woodland on Jeløy island in Østfold for the last few winters and therefore should be possible to find with some patience.

The best method for finding one is to stop and listen regularly for its tapping noise as it feeds. I did this and after an hour I had heard the tappings of (and subsequently seen) a single Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett) and a Nuthatch (spettmeis). I was determined to find the bird though and therefore started retracing my steps. I heard a weak tapping that was coming from not too far away. I located the source and it was a small bird with a white belly high up in the branches of a dead spruce. I immediately thought Nuthatch but then I saw its back and it was clear I had scored. Straight away it flew off (with noisy wing flaps) but this time was much easier to find as it tapped loudly in trees about 20 metres away. It was also low down and allowed me to watch it really well. There is something prehistoric about the look of these birds and given their specific habitat preference and low densities I assume that in terms of evolution that they split off from the other woodpeckers a long time ago.

I was able to enjoy it for 5 minutes before with loud wing beats it flew off further into the wood.

The white as opposed to yellow crown mean this is a female although the white is more extensive that I would expect from the literature. Due to poor light it was quite challenging taking photos even though I was close to the bird and it was low down (all pictures were with ISO 6400). The video though turned out quite well despite my hand shake! You can see how it knocks off the bark searching for insects and does so on small branches as well as the tree trunk.

female Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett)

from behind the white line up the back is diagnostic

from this angle confusion is possible with a female Lesser-spotted Woodpecker

getting ready to attack

this picture shows off the characteristic and name giving three toes (other woodpeckers have four)

On the way home I went searching for new Hawk Owls without any luck although I did discover some fine wetland habitat at Bjørnerødvann which I will have to visit in the spring. My first drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker of the year and a calling Black Woodpecker were the best I could muster.

Feeling the need to get my weekend fix I drove past, and failed to see the Nordre Furu bird but the Frogn School bird was easy to find as usual. I spent some time with it but in typical fashion it did nothing but sit at the top of the tree and look around: no flying, no hunting, no calling. This bird obviously finds enough to eat but in contrast to the woodland at Åsermarka yesterday there were no rodent tracks to be seen in the snow.

Hawk Owl (haukugle) Frogn VGS

Becoming a bit of a bore

I was ready to go cold turkey today but I had a date with Rune and he was anxious to get his weekly dose.
Our stated intention was to bird Jeløya near Moss but to get there you drive perilously close to countless ruthless dealers all too willing to sell you their wares. I thought Rune had his cravings under control as we drove along the E6 but just when I thought we had driven past the turning to Drøbak a violent turn of the steering wheel had us careering off towards Drøbak and the school playground dealer. We scored.

Jeløya had unfortunately little to offer. A couple of Nutrackers (nøttekråke) were my first for the year. One was feeding on cones on some kind of ornamental spruce. Here you see it feeding, note how it has stripped the cone. 

Nutcracker (nøttekråke)

 The sea off Jeløy was flat and there were a few seaducks but nothing too interesting. We tried Alby forest for woodpeckers but only encountered two birds in a 2km walk: single Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett) and single Nuthatch (spettmeis) – obviously not a particularly productive day!

We drove back on the minor roads searching for more Hawkie. At Våler Næringspark we were able to get very well acquainted with the dealer here. I actually saw it discard a pellet which I was later able to find on the ground. It was small and still wet – in fact it could have been mistaken for a hairy moose dropping. There were hardly any bones and they were tiny and it consisted mostly of hair - foolishly I didn't take a photo.
We noted some blood on the underside of this individual. I can't make out whether this is from an injury or whether it had recently eaten and the blood was from its prey - when they eat they hold the prey about here with their talons. If it had just eaten then it was not full (perhaps not surprising given the tiny bones in the pellet) as it was moving from tree top to tree top searching for a new hunting spot. This at least gave me new chances to practice my flight photography and I will be bold enough to say that I think I'm getting better.

Continuing home we had brief views of a Pine Grosbeak (konglebit) perched on a tree top but it disappeared all too quickly and at Kroer both the Hawk Owl and Great Grey Shrike (varsler) were on show. So another good day in good company and good weather but there are no signs of me getting my habit under control.

Hawk Owl (haukugle) - my best flight shot to date

the blood is visible here

blood also visible here

a quite satisfying picture

here it was on its way up to land on the top of a tree

this tree to be precise. This is where it also discarded a pellet

owl in nature