Crossbills

Now that Redpolls have been lumped into one species I think it is time to do the same with Crossbills. Are Common Crossbill, Scottish Crossbill and Parrot Crossbill really different species or are they just different forms along a clinal range where dominant food source is the determining factor? My memory of reading what the Sound Approach wrote is that Common Crossbill contains so many distinct populations with different calls and bill sizes that they could just as easily be considered different species. Scottish Crossbill has always been a farce (don’t they go “missing” in some years and then turn up again with a slightly different call?) that I think was driven by Britain’s desire to have an endemic species but now that Red Grouse has been split from Willow Grouse then Britain has its symbolic endemic so Scottish Crossbill can be allowed to fade away. Parrot Crossbill at the extreme end does look and sounds very different from the opposite extreme of Common Crossbill but there are many, many birds that are somewhere in between and you (I) really struggle to put a label on them other than “crossbill”.

This last week I have seen a nice variety of crossbills that brought back my dislike of the species group. At the weekend we had some crossbills in nice mature pine (as opposed to spruce) forest. This would normally mean that they are Parrots and in Norway Parrots are called furukorsnebb (mean Pine Crossbill) whereas Common are grankorsnebb (meaning Spruce Crossbill). Looking at them in the binoculars it was not immediate what they were and neither were their calls particularly helpful one way or the other. Zooming in on photos I identified them as Parrots but definitely not the largest billed of their kind. Maybe they are a far better fit for Scottish? Is it not the case that crossbills develop bills to suit the food they are specialising in so a (sub)population that has good access to pine grows a larger bill than one that has access to spruce or larch?

Then on Monday I had classic Parrot and Common together (both in bill size and call) plus a bird that was somewhere in between.

male Parrot Crossbill (furukorsnebb) from Ringebu at the weekend

the bill does look huge on this one

the female looks classic Parrot but the male not quite

here they are looking good

but at this angle not so

And pictures from Monday closer to home:

this male is definitely not a Parrot although in the field that was my original conclusion

this pair with their smaller bills without parallel upper and lower mandibles are clearly Common Crossbills

the male of the same pair

a pair of Parrots Crossbills - large billed, bull necked classic birds

the male of the pair

this should be the same pair but the male is now looking quite different

this should be the same male who again looks different depending on angle

the female is the Parrots but the male is one of the Common Crossbills (possibly the first bird I have pictures and not from the pair)

here it is easier to see that the male is not a Parrot

the differences are perhaps easier to see here

This video has the two pairs and also the calls. The deeper call we hear most often is the Parrot and the higher pitched call is from the Common

here a still warm road kill juvenile Common Crossbill from Maridalen today. The bill looks to be fully developed

Migrants and lingering Hawk Owl

We have now had two nights without frost and along with southerly winds I have been expecting a flood of migrants. Of course, that has not been the case and viz mig has been a particular disappointment with just a few flocks of Pink-footed Geese, 2 Cranes and a Kestrel. I had a real hope for a few raptors but it is clearly still too early still (and I have this “surprise” every year at this time….).

 

Despite the lack of viz mig there has been an arrival of new birds. Dunnocks and Redwings are suddenly back and singing from woodland, White and Grey Wagtail are suddenly wagging away and there are considerably more Lapwing, Mistle Thrushes, Chaffinches, Bramblings and a large Twite flock in Maridalen. Surprisingly though there are no Robins back yet but that must happen soon.

The Hawk Owl has been showing very well as it exploits a rich source of Bank Voles (klatremus) and I was very happy to be able to film it dismembering and then eating one.

 

A trip to Østensjøvannet was very birdy with lots of noisy gulls and various wildfowl with a pair of Smew being the absolute highlight.

The video I have long wanted to capture showing the beheading, entrails removing and swallowing of a vole

Hawkie on a wire

and on its way down for what ended up being an unsuccessful vole hunt

this video has a few sequences with it giving its call that I also heard frequently when it first turned up in November

male Smew (lappfiskand)

pair

and with a Grey Heron (gråhegre)

3 male Teal (krikkand)

and a close of up another bird

the Heron was not at all popular with the Black-headed Gulls (hettemåke)

Goosander (laksand) are also back

3 species of returning gulls on the ice and 2 male Goosander

Grey Wagtail (vintererle) is back in the Dale

as is Dunnock (jernspurv)

and Redwing (rødvingetrost)

and a large flock of Twite (bergirisk) is having a stop off on its migration

and the first White Wagtail (linerle) of the year

not in Maridalen and not a good picture but I cannot remember capturing Parrot (furukorsnebb) and Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) together before

Canada and Greylag Geese in Maridalen suddenly became very alert when this fox appeared

The Big Pink Day

The last week saw the greatest migration day of the spring, at least as far as quantity is concerned, when the Pink-footed Geese decided that conditions were favourable and took off on mass from Denmark early in the morning before passing over Oslo some hours later. Thursday was the day and is the earliest ever date for the big day which 30-40 years ago used to occur in the first week of May. Over the course of 3 hours I counted over 9000 birds heading first NNE over Maridalen and then after the wind changed from southerly to northerly they started heading ENE. I made a real effort to check every flock hoping for something white or red but could only find a few Barnacles and just a single Greylag amongst them. When you spend so long scanning the skies you expect to notice other signs of viz mig but amazingly apart from some Wood Pigeons and some gulls I just had a single Buzzard and two Sparrowhawks which were probably local birds.

Passerine migration has picked up slightly with a few Mistle Thrushes, Twite and Reed Buntings now around in Maridalen but it can feel very birdless at times.

My major excitement this week has been with owls again but they will be the subject of their own post very soon.

hundreds of Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) streaming over Maridalen on Thursday

here with a Barnacle Goose (hvitkinngås) amongst them

the juvenile Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb) are growing and will probably leave the nest within a week. Note however that they have yet to develop the crossed bill of their parents

food time

with the sunny days there are suddenly insects and Goldcrest (fuglekonge) are appearing openly in bushes to exploit this new food source

Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers (dvergspett) are getting quite vocal as they search for mates. I had two very noisy birds yesterday which as far as I could see were both females

a pale Buzzard (musvåk)

my first Adder (hoggorm) of the year

and my first Oslo Small Tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl)