Holiday memories installment I

It’s a bit of a job to go through all the pictures and memories from the holiday.

To start with here are some pictures and video of the Asian White-winged Scoter and Long-tailed Skuas that I mentioned in a previous post. The scoter ended up being fairly easy to find early in the mornings when the light was good but despite being one the closest birds was never in real photo range. I also saw the Pied-billed Grebe a couple of more times although it was also a lot further out than on the day I found it.

Asian White-wonged Scoter / Stejneger's Scoter (knoppsjøorre) - the distintive head shape is visible despite the grainy photo

Taking photos of the Long-tailed Skuas from a small boat was a bit of a challenge but they at least give a flavour of how it was

adult Long-tailed Skua (fjelljo)

appearing out of the mist

a 2cy (1st summer) bird was also with them

 

10 birds

47 birds I think

here they were taking off from the sea

Pied-billed Pics

Here are some pictures and a video of the Pied-billed Grebe (ringnebbdykker).

the Stejneger's Scoter / Asian White-winged Scoter (knippsjøorre) was even more distant than usual although I reckon this counts as a record shot

Here's Knobby!

This year’s summer holiday hasn’t followed the tried and tested formula of the mountains around Beitostølen and then northern Norway around Bodø. Instead we headed straight to Bodø once the school holidays started. I therefore got to bird the fjord at Fauske/Klungsett earlier than previously and my hope was to follow the build up of moulting ducks and to at least refind the Asian White-winged Scoter (Stejneger’s Scoter) from the last two years and the Surf Scoter from last year plus to find something else new and exciting (American Black Scoter would be a nice find for example).

I had my first check of the ducks on 3rd July (compared to the 7th in the last two years). There were fewer birds than later in the month in previous years with Goldeneye (300+) the most numerous. The best birds were two adult male King Eiders which had only just started their moult when I found them, 3 male Scaup and rarest of all (in local terms) a Great Crested Grebe. But no Knobby (found on 7^th in 2016 and 15^th in 2015). Despite near daily visits I couldn’t find anything more exciting although Velvet Scoter numbers did start increasing to ca. 300. We then went off to Lofoten on the 10^th for a week (will have to cover that in a separate post) and my next chance to check out the ducks wasn’t until today, 18 July. The sea wasn’t that calm but it was clear that numbers had risen. The two King Eiders were still present at Røvika and with a very high tide ducks were feeding close to land. I was hoping to get good pictures of the eiders when I noticed Knobby – so nice of the local birders to let me find him three years running! In overcast conditions the light was not good but he was closer than I have ever had him other than on the day of discovery in 2015 and I managed to study the bill better than ever before. The bill of this bird is quite dull and mostly pink (differs to drawing and pictures of other birds of the species) and makes me quite sure that this is the same bird that has also been seen in Trøndelag. As in previous years he was in active moult with most of his primaries missing so will be around for a while.

Here are some pictures and a video (my best yet of the bird?). More blog posts and video from the holiday will follow at some time. Surprisingly the pictures from the superzoom have turned out better than from the bazooka.

Adult male Stejnegers's Scoter / Asian White-winged Scter (knoppsjøorre) 

Rare scoters from The Cabin

It is bucketing down in and around Oslo at the moment and the Olympics are starting so today will mostly be spent on the sofa. Gives me a chance though to post some of the remaining pictures from our time in the Bodø area in July. If you want to get an understanding of what life is like for Norwegians at their cabin's then this song by Ylvis (famous for "What does the Fox say") may give you an idea

First yet again some pictures of the Stejneger’s (Siberian) and Surf Scoters. These birds were far from cooperative and never came close for good photos but the Stejneger’s (Knobby) showed on every visit bar two normally loosely associating with a small group of Velvet Scoters and I saw him 10 times. The Surf Scoters were much less accommodating and I only ever saw a single Surf Scoter after having initially seen two and only saw this species four times in total. There were always large numbers of ducks too far out to scrutinise so both could well have still been present plus who knows that else.

On the morning of 20 July it was sunny and windless meaning I had perfect viewing conditions but unfortunately Knobby was just a bit too far out and the Surf was only a prick in the ‘scope but on the 19^th I managed some photos of Surfy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knobby on 20th

Stejneger's White-winged Scoter (knoppsjøorre) together with a male Velvet Scoter.

the shape of the knob shows best in this picture

The brown underparts was something I also noted in 2015 and is not something I find mentioned in the literature for stejnegeri. The North American (sub)species deglandi has brown flanks but here you see that this bird has black flanks so I don't think the brown underparts are anything to worry about ID wise. I thought last year that the brown belly was a sign of it being a young adult but then they should not be visible this year. An alternative explanation is that as the bird is moulting that these feathers are old/new and prone to getting waterlogged and therefore look different?

here one can see the heavy wing moult

perhaps the best picture I've managed showing the bill colouration although the shape and extent on the knob has not come through aswell on this years pictures as it did last year

the windless conditions on the 20th made for some fantastic reflections on the fjord. These pictures were taken on the drive from the cabin to the by holding the scoters

Surfy on 19th

Surf Scoter (brilleand)

If you think the above pictures are bad then look at my best efforts from the other days...

Knobby on 19th

Knobby on 23rd

Knobby on 15th - he is on the left!

Surf & Turf

This morning with little wind and good light I finally got a Surf Scoter within some sort of photo range and also had both Surfy and Knobby within the same long sweep of the scope. It seems that Knobby is further out for every day that passes (as was also the case last year) but there is a small group of Velvets that feeds close to the shore and I have a hope that one morning I will find Knobby or Surfy with this group.

At the cabin I have had Waxwings on three occasions with a group of three birds today looking like a family party. This is the third summer I’ve had Waxwings here so I suspect they breed in the area regularly. We’e also had a pair of White-tailed Eagles making a lot of noise, a regular pair of Red-throated Divers and a porpoise. Cabin life is good!

 



Surf Scoter (brilleand) at long range

this was taken with 260x digital zoom on the super zoom (other pictures taken with bazooka)

from yesterday with Stejneger's Scoter and Great Northern Diver in same shot

the close Velvets that I hope one of the rare scoters will join up with. In the is shot is a female, 2 young males and the rest are older males



an Otter from today

Some holiday snaps

With the rest of the family having to be woken up at 10:45 this morning I was able to fit in both birding and photo editing.

The birding front was rather spoilt by overcast skies and a fresh breeze which made searching the fjord rather difficult. A male King Eider in eclipse plumage was the highlight with the vast majority of Velvet Scoters too far out for them to be grilled and therefore no sightings of any of the rare scoters.

Here are a couple of pictures and a video of the Stejneger’s White-winged Scoter from yesterday

 

 

And here is a first instalment of photos from the drive up.

The Capers

 

A juv Willow Grouse

 

A Common Sandpiper

 

A Cuckoo

 

An adult Golden Eagle

A White-tailed Eagle

 

A mountain and a Long-tailed Skua