River Warbler

One of the highlights of the early summer in southern Norway is going out on warm, windless nights searching for nocturnal singing birds of the likes River Warbler, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Corncrake, Quail, Spotted Crake plus commoner Marsh Warblers and the chance of owls and even rarer birds. The majority of these species are scarce late arriving migrants and it would seem that by singing in the middle of the night when all other species are asleep and quiet increases their chances of attracting a mate.

The numbers of these species varies greatly from year to year with larger numbers seeming to be associated with warm southerly airflows at the end of May and beginning of June. This year does not seem to be a good year with even Marsh Warblers only being reported in low numbers. Observer coverage obviously also plays a role and you are not going to find anything unless you are out there burning the midnight oil. After long days of guiding my oil burning powers were quite diminished but with Per Christian as the designated driver and a reported River Warbler close to Oslo I managed to get myself out on Sunday night. With it being overcast, but still warm, we hoped that action would start early. We did have some action but most of the areas we checked were free of anything exotic. We found the River Warbler and heard and even saw it at close range which to be honest made the night but it is always nice if you find something new. All we had though was 4 Marsh Warblers and Tawny Owl including a bird giving the rarely heard Hawk Owl type song. An exotic sighting though came when the orange colours of a Ruddy Shelduck shone through the darkness. Undoubtedly the same escaped bird that has guested Østensjøvannet for a few years it was sat by a pond close to a farm.

video grab of the River Warbler (elvesanger)

plastic Ruddy Shelduck (rustand) -  an unexpected sighting at 23:12

Goldeneye

Relatively warm today and a few new birds at Bygdøy but Maridalen is still in winter modus and Fornebu is surprisingly devoid of passerines – a walk around Nansenparken revealed just one Great Tit!!

On Bygdøy there were now three Lapwings, over 200 Greylag, I heard a fly over Snow Bunting and there were 3-5 Stock Doves with two of them singing.

A visit to Østensjøvannet revealed no increase in the area of open water but there were a lot of birds with Goldeneyes and Tufted Ducks now back. Four Goldeneyes were also on the one small area of open water on Maridalsvannet.

male Goldeneye (kvinand) with Mallards

Goldeneye pair

 

female Goldeneye

here we can see the inner eye lid which is like a windscreen wiper

three Lapwings on Bygdøy. The left hand bird is a female and the other two males

a so-called "inter-sex" Mallard most likely a female with a lot of male hormones

the male Wigeon x Mallard hybrid

here the hybrid and the intersex Mallard. These intersex bird can often be suspected of being hybrids and the similarity in head pattern can be seen here

 

I normally don't spend time with plastic wildfowl but in the snow the Ruddy Shelduck made a nice subject

Wood Pigeons (ringdue) are nearly even better looking though

the Goshawk (hønsehauk) as perched up in the same tree in Maridalen where it was having  good preen. Note the huge talons

 

Long-tailed Tits

The change in weather brought very strong southerly winds today, in fact much stronger than forecast and there were big white tops to the waves on the fjord. Bird activity was, not surprisingly, reduced but there were some birds to find. I took a trip down to the Drøbak area where I picked up two of the four Great Grey Shrikes in the Golden Triangle. There was nothing unusual on or over the sea despite the winds but I did pick up a distant Purple Sandpiper on the island of Småskjær.

I found a large (ca.100) flock of Yellowhammers which is the largest flock I have found this winter of a species that has been much scarcer than usual around Oslo. If one has ambitions of finding a rare bunting (there are two Pine Buntings wintering in Norway) then these flocks have to be grilled. Apart from a few females lacking nearly all trace of yellow tones there was nothing other than Hammers in the flock though.

I stopped at Østensjøvannet on the way home and despite the lake still being 99% frozen there were signs of spring and some small changes in the birdlife. Seven Greylag Geese was a 600% over the wintering population and 13 Mute Swans were back – a sign of the intense competition for nesting sites here. There were also a lot more Herring Gulls mooching about on the ice than earlier and they were bathing and drinking in the fresh water and it wouldn’t surprise me if these are birds from the tip and that the Caspo will pop in here occasionally. Biggest sign of spring though was a fly over Grey Wagtail (vintererle) which despite its Norwegian name is definitely not a winter bird. A pair of Long-tailed Tits provided the days photo motif.

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis) at Østensjøvannet

 

amongst the Yellowhammers were birds such as the one on the right with only minimal yellow tones in the plumage and which required an extra look

the Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in the northern territory

and the one close by at Årungen

the male Wigeon x Mallard hybrid is still present at Østensjøvannet and looking a bit smarter now

from behind there is a blue sheen to the head

this male Mallard (stokkand) stands out amongst its kin due to a slight smaller size and the blue rather than yellow bill. I think this may be due to it having genetic influence from a type of domestic duck

 

the escaped female Ruddy Shelduck has spent the whole winter here and survived whereas last winter it left for the winter

Chaffing again

We woke up to snow this morning (can’t remember that being forecast) plus low cloud and the promise of a day that wouldn’t remain in a dusk like condition all day.

I still needed to get out though as there are Chaffchiffs (gransanger) that need chiffing. I started at Huk hoping for at least one of the three species of auk (Razorbill (alke), Little Auk (alkekonge) and Black Guillemot (teist)) that others manage to see but evade me (I just find Guillemots(lomiv)). No luck on that score but I did note the continued presence of the refugees who still don’t seem to have been taken care of by the Norwegian welfare system but also seem to be looking none the worse for that (maybe they are labour migrants rather than asylum seakers?).

The reedbed at Hengsenga looked very lifeless when I arrived with its fresh layer of snow and I couldn’t even hear any Blue Tits. As I started walking around though I heard that now familiar sad peep of a tristis Chiffchaff. This time I managed to see the bird actually giving the call. This bird looks to be the same one I saw last Friday and is not as far as I can see the bird I found on Tuesday although much has been written about how the colour of tristis can morph depending on the light conditions. This bird appears darker than that first individual but still looks good for tristis with absence of yellow in the plumage. Today it called for a bit when I first found it but after that went quiet and didn’t respond to any of the sounds I played it although it did seem to respond to pishing. However it was much easier to see than it has previously been and kept in an area of tall dry grass where it would often show at just a few metres range although the auto focus on the camera often couldn’t keep up especially with grass stems getting in the way. However I took so many pictures that some had to be useable.

Østensjøvannet was also visited and the usual wildfowl were still present on the four small areas of open water and would seem to be finding plenty of food.

Maridalen was deadly quiet and I couldn’t relocate yesterdays Lt Tits or Chiffchaff.

siberian (tristis) Chiffchaff:

I took a couple of hundred pictures of this bird and feel that none perfectly match the colour of the bird as I experienced it in the field. Many of the pictures I took also differ depending on light, background and exposure

this picture captures the brown ear coverts. Also notice the lack of yellow or green tones

note the white underparts. At this angle we can see some yellow/green tones at the bend of the wing and on the edges of the primaries and secondaries which is OK for tristis

here the bird looks less white on the underparts but note the lack of yellow on the head

Add caption

here we see the slight yellow area on the underwing coverts (which show at the bend of the wing on the resting bird)

this Robin was also surviving in the reedbed alongside the chiffchaff. The two different types of greater covert feathers (longer and with broad tips inner and shorter with only thin pale tips outer) show this to be a 1cy bird.

young Mute Swan - this is a full colour photo!

The refugees with the exclusive Dynafyr resturant in the background

this Cormorant (storskarv) had captured a large cod. I didn't see how it fared but the local gulls which normally are very quick to try to steal food from the Cormorants didn't even bother with this

Confusion and some ducks

ducktastic at Østensjøvannet

Still cold today but the blue skies have been replaced by clouds although they are not the dark, thick, low clouds we have had most of November such that there was proper daylight. I headed for Bygdøy again. Nothing of note on the sea but the two refugees are still present finding enough grass to eat. It will be interesting to see what they do when the snows come.

At Hengsenga again one, possibly two, Chiffchaffs (gransanger). One that I managed some pictures of was a green bird and this didn't call. A bird that did call and which I managed to record a single contact call from wasn't necessarily the same bird and in the brief view I saw of it was perhaps browner (although definitely not the bird of 2 days ago) but the views weren't good enough. The call was just like yesterdays and the sonogram is much better than yesterday and is I think useable but does not fit anything I’ve seen before with the fall off at the end being unexpected. In the frost covered chest high vegetation it was very difficult keeping track of the bird(s) especially as they called very little and were not responsive to me pishing or playing various calls/song.

Chiffchaff from the west of Siberia

I eventually lost track of them and it started snowing so I gave up (for today).

These Chiffchaffs are perplexing and just when you think you have got it then you realise the whole species complex is still a mess.

I thought it would be worth checking the docks as inland waterd are now freezing over. At Kongshavn there were a couple hundred each of Mallard (stokkand) and Goldeneye (kvinand) and with 14 Tufteds (toppand) a 1cy male Scaup (bergand).

At Østenjøvannet the lake is 99% frozen but 45 Mute swans (knoppsvane) were still present. Maybe the young birds are still not feeling ready to migrate? Family groups were flying around but kept returning to the small patch of open water. Still 5 each of Wigeon (brunnakke) and Teal (krikkand) and a few geese. The male Pintail (stjertand) is now looking splendid with a proper tail and the plastic shelduck provided colour. Very durprisingly there were only 2 Coot (sothøne) yet 3 Moorhen (sivhøne). Normally around 10 Coot overwinter here but the Moorhens disappear completely as soon as the first ice comes (edit: it turns out there were 220 Coot on a small patch of ice free water at the other end of the lake...oops!). Both these species migrate at night and must have left enmasse two nights ago. But to where and why do we never see them migrating in daytime?

Østensjøvannets returning male Pintail now has a proper tail. Last year when it was a 1cy the tail was quite short

a variety of widlfowl

the young male Scaup at distance

more wildfowl variety including Wigeon

it was getting quite crowded for the Mute Swans and the pair on the right were still being territorial