Back in the hood

The last week has been spent in Mallorca on a family holiday and not birding during primetime in Norway which means that it was not me but rather Håvard Eggen who discovered a second for Norway (and a very rare WP bird) in the form of a Baltimore Oriole on, yes you’ve guessed it Værøy! It goes to show that timing and weather mean everything with island birding in the autumn – the obvious solution would be to move there..

Back in Oslo today I took Oslo Birder Jr on a cycle ride to Maridalen where we twitched the valleys only second ever Shovelers and best of all had a Pygmy Owl. I heard a bunch of very irritated passerines and knew they were mobbing an owl. We walked up to them and stood under the tree where all the commotion was going on. I was thinking Tawny Owl and was therefore looking for something big and it too me a looong time to notice the tiny yellow eyed predator sitting just 5 metres above me on a small branch. I managed two poor photos before it flew off with a Brambling nipping at its tail.

this Pygmy Owl was perched very close in good light but unfortunately it flew off right after I got this picture. It didn't help that I was desperately trying to get Jr onto the bird

Our week in Mallorca involved little birding despite us staying in a hotel on the edge of the fantastic S’Albufeira wetland nature reserve. I birded very little and had no ‘scope and only took the old 70-300mm lens. There was a small hide overlooking a pool only 5 minutes walk from the hotel so I did of course visit that every day J

Best record was a flock of 32 Marbled Teal which I think originate from reintroduced birds as do the couple of Purple Gallinules I saw. In addition there were Black-winged Stilts, Flamingo, Audoin’s Gulls, Marsh Harrier, Booted Eagle, Stonechat, Fan-tailed, Cetti’s and Sardinian Warblers, Firecrest, Serin, Eleanora’s Falcon, Stone Curlew, Kingfisher plus plus so not too bad for a non-birding trip.

the smartest of the large gulls - Audouin's Gull (middelhavsmåke)

Black-winged Stilts (stylteløper)

a distant flock of egrets and a couple of Eleanora's Falcons against the distant mountains

Fan-tailed Warbler/Zitting Cisticola (cistussanger)

Two firecrests (rødtoppfuglekonge) - can you spot them?

young Flamingo

aliens

Alien sex

Kingfisher (isfugl)

Little Egrets (silkehegre) in the rain

Marbled Teal (marmorand) with Mallards

flock of Marbled Teal and Mallards

same flock in the rain

Marsh Harriers (sivhauk) were common

Purple Gallinule/Swamphen (sultanhøne)

using its feet to hold the reeds it eats

Speckled Wood butterflies look different here

Stone Curlew (triel

male Stonechat (svartstrupe)

 

Mallorca

A week long holiday has, despite a hotel within walking distance of S'Albufera, meant little birding but that has been just fine  :-)
A couple of short visits to the hides at S'Albufera did of course result in a few birds though.

adult Red-knobbed Coot - a couple of small things help separate this from its common cousin

juvenile Red-knobbed Coot - not so easy to separate from its common cousin

Purple Swamphen - note the incredibly long legs and how it uses them to hold the sedge grass that it bites off with its large bill

Little Egret

Garganey - the only one of its kind I could find amongst hundreds of Teal and Shoveler

whilst photographing this Golden Plover which I think is unusual here I completely missed the other bird lying down next to it (Stone Curlew)

this should definitely not have been here - a Harris Hawk which is a bird of North America and therefore an escapee

a Marbled Duck - along with the coots and swamphens these have been reintroduced to the marshlands of S'Albufera

Mallorca photos

Towards the end of our week in Mallorca we visited the famous Boquer Valley. Going either side of midday was never going to be that productive but I did expect a litte more than Blue Rock Thrush (blåtrost), Booted Eagle (dvergørn), Raven (ravn), Crag Martin (klippesvale), Stonechat (svartstrupe), Pied Flycatcher (svarthvit fluesnapper) and Sardinian Warbler (svarthodesanger).
A drive to Sa Calobra on a fantastic mountain road full of switchbacks gave us at least 8 Black Vultures munkegribb) and 2 Griffons Vultures (gåsegribb) aswell as Booted Eagle and Kestrels (tårnfalk). On a future trip to Mallorca it will definitely be worth spending more time exploring the mountains.
The bay in Porto Pollenca offered bathing and birding with Auduoin's Gulls (middelhavsmåke), Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke), Shags (toppskarv) and Sandwich Terns (splitterne) resting on the offshore breakwaters. I waded out in the shallow water to within 20m of the birds to take pictures (hoping to get sea level shots of diving terns but i just missed this) and later swam to within 5 metres of the unaffected birds.

I only took the old 70-300mm lens with me and often found the light to be too harsh for good pictures but here is a selection of the best ones I took and I will have some separate postings of selected species later.

Red-knobbed Coot (knoppsothøne)

The new name is far more fitting than the old name of Crested Coot. After the breeding season they loose the redcurrants on their head and therefore far more resemble Common Coots (sothøne). The three birds I saw all had knobs and I couldn't pick out any without amongst the far more numerous Common Coots.
 

Purple Swamphen (sultanhøne)

This was a very common bird and not particularly shy.

Booted Eagle (dvergørn)

Alongside Kestrel, Booted Eagle was the commonest raptor we saw and although smaller than a Buzzard (musvåk) it has the feal of an eagle with longs fingers and a stout bill. Light and dark phase birds seemed to be equally common. On the dark phase birds the pale "landing lights" are very obvious on birds flying towards you.

Auduoin's Gulls (middelhavsmåke) in Porto Pollenca bay

Little Egret (silkehegre) at S'Albufera

Black-winged Stilts (sylteløper)

Moustached Warbler (Tamarisksanger)

Griffon Vulture (gåsegribb)

unknown dragonfly

A day flying moth - presumed hawkmoth of some kind