Stonechat

The arrival of spring has not been as explosive as I dreamed and those birds with names beginning with S are only slowly appearing in my binoculars. I can add another two species to the list of four I have already mentioned in the form of Stonechat and Shelduck but am struggling to come up with a seventh to make it S Club 7. Of the six I have now seen only three though.

Shelduck was just an oversight when I listed the first migrants but Stonechat was an omission based on it being such a rarity but times are a changing. In Oslo and Bærum (which I include because of Fornebu) this weekend four!! Stonechat were present with two in Oslo and another two on Fornebu. They came in cold, snowy conditions when an insect eater should really struggle to find food but then again they are not an extremely early migrant for nothing and clearly know how to find food in these conditions. I failed to find my own chat at the weekend and also failed in attempts to twitch one after being shown very juicy photos that a photographer had taken and which he was unsure as to the identity of. But yesterday morning I caught up with a female found on Sunday at Fornebu which I had really expected to have moved on overnight as it was a clear night. It showed well as fresh snow fell and often dropped to the ground clearly having seen a food item but I did not see it actually eat anything.

The first spring record of Stonechat in Oslo and Bærum was in 1977 but it was then another 21 years before the next in 1998 and in the next 22 years there were just records in six years. From 2021 though the species has been annual and records are also occurring earlier than before. Four in a year in both 2021 and 2024 is the record so having already reached that number this year when we can get birds until the middle of April is clearly something special. Exactly where these birds are migrating to remains and what subspecies are involved remains a bit of a mystery. The small breeding population on the west coast of Norway are described as hibernans and are very early migrants whereas the subspecies that breeds further south in Europe and that is advancing north in Sweden is rubicola which migrates later. Birds this early in the spring would could be expected to be hibernans but I am not aware of any increase or change in distribution of their population to explain the explosion of records in recent years. If they are rubicola are they just birds overshooting their new breeding areas in southern Sweden? And if so why aren’t they establishing themselves as breeders in Norway and why are they arriving so early?

 

And the third S Club species I have seen in addition to Stock Dove and Stonechat? Starling, with a flock of 9 looked a bit forlorn in a treetop on Bygdøy.

female Stonechat (Svartstrupe)

proof of where it was

here it had flown down onto the snow having seen a food item

I may have found no spring migrants yet in Maridalen but I again saw two different Pygmy Owls on Sunday with this one being at a site where I also had sightings in the late autumn and being the fourth different bird I have seen the last few weeks. It also sang as can be heard in the video

Three Long-tailed Ducks at Fornebu:

And Purple Sandpipers at Huk, Bygdøy taken with the phone:

Tromsø in February rocks!

Our first mid winter trip to Tromsø has been a resounding success. We arrived at the end of Sami Week, an annual celebration of all things Sami, and got to see the Norwegian Championships in both lasso throwing and Reindeer racing. The reindeer racing happened on a snow lined downtown street on a 201m course. It was explained that 201m is the internationally defined distance for the sport but no explanation was given for why. A skier holds on to the reins whilst the animal runs and covers the distance in around 17 seconds. It all looked great fun although the animals didn’t exactly look thrilled whilst being harnessed up. Animal welfare was not mentioned once..

The Northern Lights also put on a show and this is one of the main reasons the City has become such a popular winter tourist destination and the streets were heaving with winter clothed tourists from ever corner of the globe. This tourism results in hotel prices going through the roof and rented accommodation being used for Air BnB rather than for locals or students who need it and is causing quite a lot of resentment among many natives.

I put on a «show» for the 100 or so students in Junior’s 8 storey high student block when whilst making food I slightly burnt some mince causing the smoke alarm to go off and the whole building to be evacuated. The fire brigade arrived within 10 minutes and were very good about it - I even think they were grateful to me for being given something to do on an otherwise boring Sunday evening ☺️

But what about the birds I hear you say. Well, they were tip top super. King Eiders and an adult Iceland Gull topped the bill and all seen whilst walking from Junior’s into town. Passerines are of course going to be in short supply in winter this far north but an abundance of rowan berries resulted in small flocks of Waxwing and and most surprisingly a Redwing which would be an exceptional mid winter sight even in Oslo.

The trusted superzoom and mobile phone resulted in the following documentation of the delights of Tromsø (this is done at the airport and I may come with some better edited photos later):

King Eider (praktærfugl) pair

Adult Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke)

Fieldfare (gråtrost)

Redwing (rødvingetrost)

I saw no divers in the field but this Yellow-billed was in Tromsø Museum

Where I also had my best ever «views» of a Gyr Falcon
(Jaktfalk)

According to accepted Norwegian birding wisdom Shags (toppskarv) never perch like this…

Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt)

Herons have been roosting in the heronry trees by Junior’s flat all winter and they were present and noisy when we were there

A close male Long-tailed Duck (havelle)

Birdy

The weather is now far more autumnal than wintery with temperatures up to 8C in the day and no overnight frosts. On Sunday snow gave way to rain and it’s all quite gloomy and grey.

Fieldfares are around in enormous numbers with up to 2000 stripping rowan trees and also feeding again on the fields. Amongst them have been at least 20 Redwing, 2 Starling and an exceptionally late Mistle Thrush. The Mistle Thrush is actually the latest ever recorded in Oslo as was a Meadow Pipit today which really show how mild it is at the moment. There are also very good numbers of Goldfinch (>250), Brambling (>110) and Yellowhammer (>120) so it is all very birdy.

A trip to Huk in fresh southerly winds yesterday revealed no sea birds but three Long-tailed Ducks were without doubt in Oslo waters 😊

Pine Grosbeaks continue to entertain and I have had up to 47 in a day in. Hawkie continues to entertain the masses although in the poor weather we are having now it is in fact to possible to have him all to myself. I witnessed him fly into an overhead cable yesterday as he powered down from a tree top towards something on the ground about 30m away. He seemed unharmed but it goes to show how focused he was on a possible prey item that the unnatural obstacle that the wire is did not register with him.

Oslo's latest ever Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke)

and Oslo's latest ever Mistle Thrush (duetrost)

Goldfinches (stillits) are still around in exceptional numbers

and there are still lots of Redwing (rødvingetrost)

and Brambling (bjørkefink)

and thousands of Fieldfare (gråtrost) which strip rowan trees of their berries in just minutes

photographic evidence that I have seen Long-tailed Duck (havelle) in Oslo waters

there is very little to see on Maridalsvannet at the moment except for a handfull of Goldeneye (kvinand) and this Common Scoter (Svartand)

a shaky video of a Cormorant (storskarv) swallowing a Perch (abbor) on Maridalsvannet

filming Hawkie

here reacting to a Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) that landed closeby

and this is how he reacts to a Goshawk (hønsehauk) flying by

on Saturday morning when it was still crisp and wintery

Magpies (skjære) giving him a hard time

a video of Pine Grosbeaks taken on my phone at a couple of metres range today

this male was a noticeably more scarlet rather than claret colour red

same bird