Røst day 3

Cloudless blue skies and a fresh easterly wind meant as expected a bit of a clear out with no new arrivals except perhaps for a small increase in Redwings.

My undoubted highlight was getting even better views of an adult Gyr Falcon than yesterday. It appeared to be a different, larger bird and it is unusual to see adults out on the coast. Normally young birds move to the coast whilst the adults remain close to their breeding territories.

As a sign of how quiet things were the other highlights were a hybrid duck and a plastic duck. A female Pintail x Mallard hybrid was a first for me but seemed to be a quite obvious hybrid between these two species even though female hybrids are much more difficult to identify than males. The plastic duck was a male Mandarin. I could try to argue that it was shy and if a Two-barred Greenish can turn up here then surely a wild duck from China can but it has been around for ages…☺️

Today’s eBird checklist can be seen here.

Tomorrow is forecast to be cloudy with possibly some drizzle which should mean new, and hopefully exciting, arrivals.

Adult Gyr Falcon (jaktfalk)

And the smallest falcon - a Merlin (dvergfalk) chasing a Hooded Crow

Young Peregrine (vandrefalk) chasing a Ruff (brushane)

Female Pintail x Mallrd hybrid (stjertand x stokkand) with a female Pintail

The hybrid at the bottom with an upperwing looking very like a Pintail

The head pattern, leg colour, tertials and tail resemble Mallard but the rest is more Pintail

A poor photo but the green of the speculum can be seen

Male Mandarin coming out of eclipse plumage

Golden Plovers (heilo) here are tame and also garden birds

The Taiga Bean Goose 

Twite (bergirisk)

Snow Bunting (snøspurv)

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

I cycled a lot today and only clocked up 11663 steps

Rain means waders

Since my last post we have had a few days of rain but this has resulted in my birding activity increasing as rain at the end of July means good falls of waders in Nordre Øyeren. Fathering responsibilities and decorating chores have not given me time to walk all the way out to Årnestangen but Svellet has been very productive even though the viewing distances involved are at the absolute maximum for what can be described as acceptable for ID purposes. I have managed to see Broad-billed Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Bar-tailed Godwit, Knot, Great White Egret and Mandarin so it has been quite acceptable though.

When the rain stopped briefly on Friday I was able to continue my search for Hairstreaks in my local neighbourhood and this time located multiple Purple Hairstreaks (eikestjertvinge) on oaks at two locations and saw egglaying at both sites. This was mid-morning and I think the butterflies were keen to be active after a few days written off to rain. In the afternoon when it was very hot I only saw a single Purple Hairstreak in the same areas showing just how difficult these species are to find. I also had two small butterflies flying high up in elms but they never stopped such that I could see them so I couldn’t ascertain what they were.

I'll start with a male Common Crossbill - there are lots of cones in the forests and this winter could be good for finches. In addition there seem to be lots of rowan and asal berries so we could have lots of Waxwings and hopefully some Grosbeaks this winter

a local rarity - Mandarin Duck

and a now expected annual rarity a Great (White) Egret at Nordre Øyeren

finally good views of Purple Hairstreak (eikestjertvinge)

a driving lesson for Jr in Maridalen gave this very unusual sighting of Moose - unusual for two reasons - I don't remember ever before seeing a bull with antlers here before and it is perhaps only my second ever mid summer sighting in the Dale

If you have read this far then you may also be interested in some pictures of dragonflies..... a small local pond that has been part of my dog walking / hairstreak searching route gave me a three very similar species on Friday from only 5 observed individuals. To see the differences between them you need to look at the leg colours and patterning on the side of the breast (I had to ask for help):

here a Ruddy Darter (blodrødhøstlibelle)

and a Black Darter (svarthøstlibelle)

and a Vagrant Darter (sørhøstlibelle)

Mandarin

Weekend dog and wife walking at Fornebu and Maridalen revealed a few birds although a long forest walk which I had hoped would reveal raptors and owls was fruitless. Yesterday evening OB Jr Jr and I had a trip together to Østensjøvannet which was quite productive – every year I am asked to provide six photos for the Facebook page of the Friends of Østensjøvannet and my deadline is approaching and I realised I had no pictures from this year. I have previously sent in pictures that Jr and Jr Jr have taken and was keen to do the same this year although could only persuade Jr Jr that it was a good idea. Both the kids have a much better eye than me and take far more interesting shots whereas I just want to get the bird as large as possible in the middle of the shot. An obvious subject for us was a male Mandarin that has just turned up. Although it was still moulting out of its eclipse plumage it is a smart bird and its owners must be kicking themselves for not having secured it better – although unringed it was the tamest duck present and showed an acute fondness for bread 😊

We have not yet chosen the 6 photos that we will use but I will publish them later.

A trip to Maridalen today revealed 30 Meadow Pipits which is a sure sign of the encroachment of autumn and there were noticeably fewer summer migrants with for example no Whinchats seen. I couldn’t locate any Kingfishers either but a male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker was a nice find.

male Mandarin at Østensjøvannet

Jr Jr with the bazooka

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) in Maridalen today

I don't think I have ever noticed the pattern on the underside of the tail feathers before

young male Bluethroat (blåstrupe) at Fornebu

this Spotted Flycatcher (gråfluesnapper) at Fornebu is a fairly late observation

Moorhens (sivhøne) have really taken to the ponds that have been created at Fornebu

mating Migrants Hawkers (septemberlibelle). This is another species that has found the artificial ponds to its liking

Maridalen Mandarin

Yesterday, Rune and I “did” Nordre Øyeren and Aurskog-Høland. Birding was good although it was a great disappointment that the flodd waters at Kjelle have so rapidly declined and with no rain forecast for at least the next week they will disappear very soon. It was dry everywhere and Lapwings were concentrated around the last remaining areas of flood water rather than on breeding fields. We had good birds with my first Garganey, Hen Harrier and Golden Plover of the year and Taiga Bean Goose, White-tailed Eagle, White-fronted Goose amongst others.

Today I was up late after being (rarely) out yesterday and was not in a fit state to do very much but I joined Mrs OB for a Beast walking trip in Maridalen. Here, I had an enormous surprise with a male Mandarin Duck sitting on the edge of the ice. Although as plastic as they come you cannot tire of seeing such a smart bird and this was a new species for the Dale and not surprisingly it proved popular later on. Thrushes were starting to flock for the first time and a flock of Pink-footed Geese was on the fields as were the two Cranes.

male Mandarin

female Black Woodpecker

and the male - they are using an old hole

Golden Plover (heilo)

male Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

White-fronted Goose (tundragås)