Twitching a sleeping Stone Curlew

Whilst I was birding Oslo yesterday a message came through that a Stone Curlew had been found at Årnestangen. With under 50 records it is a national rarity and the only previous record in Akershus (it is still to be seen in Oslo) came just last year. This year’s record is interestingly the earliest ever in Norway. It goes without saying that I have not seen one in Norway.

I didn’t really consider going for it even though from the photos that were put out it was clear that the bird was at its daytime roost (they are primarily nocturnal birds) and it didn’t move at all until it was almost dark. In other words, it would have been an easy yet very boring twitch. I have to admit that this apathy to twitching is just a tad extreme especially as I do take my Akershus list seriously – I am just 7 species off the lead and everyone who is ahead of me has been birding here for at least a decade and in some cases 3 or 4 more than me so there are bound to be species that will turn up that they currently have over me.

I had no expectation that it would be present today (I am more open to day 2 twitching) but whilst walking the dog a message came through that it was again roosting in exactly the same spot. It was far easier today to make the decision to twitch and it ended up being as easy as I expected and also as boring. The bird was watched from a very safe range with lots of heat have and it not doing anything but hey, a tick’s a tick 😊

Årnestangen was otherwise very quiet with only a few raptors on a day that I had expected there to be many although a few Ospreys were my first of the year and a young Peregrine put on an amazing show as it chased and repeatedly dived at a Lapwing before eventually giving up allowing the Lapwing to fight another day.

A quick check of Maridalen on the way home revealed the first Black-throated Diver and Wheatear of the year.

Stone Curlew (triel). I am still debating with myself if this can be called a record shot but the video shows it better and I did manage to catch the only time when it did something other than sleep

and my first Wheatear (steinskvett) of the year on the same stones where I normally get my first bird

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