I'm going on a Sibe Acc Hunt

Today was the day for the big Siberian Accentor Hunt. I had delegated all family responsibilities to Mrs.OB, was up at 5am and out of the house for 13 hours. Did I find one? Of course not but I did hear a number of unidentified accentors and when I played Sibe Acc call to a couple of them they responded…….but they turned out to be of the Hedge variety. I heard the first calls when it was still dark (could well have slept 45 minutes more) and I did get myself well and truly excited thinking that I had flocks of Sibes flying over but will never know. I could actually see the site in Sweden where there has been a Sibe Acc the last few days and took a picture at 12km range which I’m sure if I blow up enough will reveal my target ;-)

So I didn’t succeed in my main target but I did find a pretty damn good bird for the parts in the form of a Little Bunting. I was riding quite high off this but felt that some of the air leaked out of the balloon when I got messages that a Desert Wheatear was at Fiskumvannet (where I was yesterday…), then a picture from Kjell M who had found a Tawny Pipit (but then again I have no chance of competing against him due to geography), then another Sibe Acc was pulled out of a net on the west coast (it is pretty embarrassing collectively for us Norwegian birders that we can’t find one in the field) and the last message was of an unidentified swift in Oslo from a birder without bins needing assistance (do any self-respecting birders ever go out without bins, or at least a superzoom in their pocket? I can see the makings of a joke there..).

So the day’s plan was to head to the island of Søndre Asmaløy right in the south east of Norway and an area which has good viz mig and a history of scarce and rare birds. I started at Håbu from 0720 to 0910 but it wasn’t until 0800 that I could see anything. There was lots to hear though from the moment I left the car with a steady, if light, passage of finches, thrushes and tits (including Long-tailed of which I must have had over 100 in the day).  Nothing too scarce here though so I headed for the area around Vikerkilen and Skipstadkilen. Here I worked hard but for a long time three Wheatears were all I had of interest. A Lapland Bunting flew over and finally I felt I had found something worthy of an October day.

Shortly after a migrating flock of Blue Tits was buzzing around in low vegetation and whilst watching them I thought I saw a small warbler fly into a bush (was probably a Goldcrest). As I raised my bins to the bush I saw a bird I immediately realised was a Little Bunting! I panicked a bit as I got my camera out of my bag and then couldn’t the bird again. I searched and searched and then decided to follow the Blue Tit flock as they were the only other birds in the area and maybe it was associating with them. A bunting flew up and away and then turned round and came back and landed in a bush where the tits were. The Blue Tits were flying out and feeding on the ground and thankfully the bunting did the same and I got really rather good views!!! It interestingly did not call once. After it flew into some bushes I retreated to send out the news and then just waited as I didn’t want to risk scaring it. The first birder arrived after about an hour and a few more after that but I left them to look (unfortunately in vain) as I was by now starving. On the way back to the car I put up two Short-eared Owls and had another Lap Bunting. Nice!

It was now 1330 and I felt I had used my luck up so instead of searching other places for Sibe Acc I decided to work my way home via a number of previously reported birds. At the Great Big Dump, Øra I had Brent and  White-fronted Goose. At Lysakermoa I had Bewick’s Swan (becoming very rare in Norway) and more White-fronts. There have been a lot of White-fronts in Norway the last few days and the ones at Lysakermoa were two juveniles. It is interesting that they had already managed to lose their parents as the Taiga Bean Geese seem to keep together as a family group until the next spring. Continuing into Akershus I had a large flock of Greylags at Hemnesjøen. I couldn’t find any Beans here (had them last week) but did find a family party of 5 White-fronts. Then at Hellesjøvannet I had a single juv White-front with Greylags. I first saw this bird in flight and it was tiny such that I got quite excited until I got to see it properly on the water. So White-fronts at four locations is certainly not something I have ever experienced before.

A very good day!

The day's undoubted highlight a momentarily photogenic Little Bunting (dvergspurv)

here in the unlikely company of Blue and Great Tit

Short-eared Owl (jordugle)

Bewick Swans (dvergsvane). The inset show an adult pair with a juvenile. To the right of the picture is the fourth bird which was a 2cy

Brent Geese (ringgås) at Øra

Scaup (bergand) at Øra. Note the left hand bird is a 1cy male (grey feathers on back)

15 White-fronted Geese (tundragås) at Øra

juv White-front with Greylags at Hellesjøvannet

family of 5 White-fronts at Hemnesjøen

2 juv White-fronts at Lysakermoa

The cloest I got (12km or so) to a Siberian Accentor although surely I must have heard one (there must thousands of them out there!)

A Bad dose of Hawkie

Today I had my first outing with Zak for what seems like ages. As is our wont we had a Tour de Østfold. First stop was Kurefjorden. Here we had a rising tide that seemed to bear no resemblance to that which was predicted by the tide tables but conditions were very good with all the waders pushed up onto a small area of mud. Despite our best efforts (and an enormous variety in plumage and size amongst the many Dunlins present) we failed to turn up anything rare although there was a bit of variety with a Grey Plover, 2 Little Stint, 2 Curlew Sandpipers, 9 Barwits amongst more numerous Dunlins and Grey Plovers. A low cloud base and threat of rain in the air produced a very quiet day on the passerine and raptor front.

We moved onto the great big dump without seeing a single harrier in the many good fields and wetland areas we passed and had a bit of success on the wader front although did not locate any of the hoped for Red-throated Pipits. Best wader was Black-tailed Godwit (my first of the year and not a bird I see annually in south east Norway) with two feeding rather distantly alongside their Bar-tailed cousin with another Barwit much closer. We also had a very flighty flock of smaller waders which at one stage tried to land at our feet and contained a Knot, a Little Stint, a Ringed Plover and 20 Dunlin.

On the way home we had a stop in Maridalen. Yesterday a Hawk Owl was released there after having spent a few days in rehabilitation after crashing into a window about half way between my house and Maridalen. I had little expectation that we would find it but suddenly it was right in front of us low down in a birch tree right by the path with a horse and rider going past. Looking at the pictures from the release yesterday this may well be the same tree it flew into upon release. It was clearly not in a good shape with both its wings drooping at times and although it could fly from branch to branch it seemed to prefer hopping. I suspect that this bird will be a pile of feathers quite soon. I am addicted to Hawkie but I must say that this was a bad hit and it has left me feeling pretty bad – never good to see such a smart bad in a bad state. I went up again with the girls two hours after seeing it with Rune but the owl was nowhere to be seen (and I checked under the tree) which I hope is a good sign (although it would also make an easy prey for a Goshawk).

 Elsewhere in Norway, it looks like two good rare birds might be even rarer birds. An Arctic Warbler on Husøy in Nordland has a call (linked to from the picture) suggesting that it may actually be a Kamchatka Leaf Warbler and therefore a WP first and a Black-browed Albatross seen today offshore in Vesfold (not too far from where Rune and I were) looks to be dark billed, dusky headed and have a lot of white on the underwing suggesting a Yellow-nosed Albatross? I’m off to Værøy in 8 days time and all this excitement means I can hardly wait!

Hawkie. Note the drooping wings

still looking good though from the right angle

moving along the branch was quite a difficult operation

drooping wings again

 

a close Bar-tailed Godwit (lappspove)

Two rather distant Black-tailed Godwits (svarthalespove)

the inset shows a Barwit (left) with one of the Blackwits

 

A blurred flock of Dunlin (myrsnipe) coming into land momentarily at our feet. A single Ringed Plover (sandlo) and a Little Stint (dvergsnipe) are also pictured

the same flock resting at distance with a single Knot (polarsnipe) and the Little Stint

Tour de Østfold

My first tour of the year with Rune was an adrenalin fuelled Tour de Østfold which I survived and we pretty much cleaned up as well as finding a couple of good birds ourselves.

We arrived at our first port of call at 9am when with cloud cover it was possible to see birds but documenting digitally would be a challenge. A group of rossicus Bean Geese with a single albifrons White-fronted Goose for company has been reported from an area named Bird Beak (Fuglenebb) although were not reported yesterday. We did not find them here today but did very surprisingly find two Meadow Pipits who surely face a certain demise with snow and temperatures below -10C. Nearby we checked a traditional site for Little Grebes and found a stonking 5 birds. As we were leaving a small flock of geese flew up from the field behind us and soon landed again. As ordered we had relocated the 8 Beans and after some searching found the White-front amongst them. The White-front is a 1st winter and was surprisingly difficult to pick out. The bird has some black barring on the belly which has led to some confusion as to its age but the very limited white around the bill and black nail on the bill leave no doubt as to its age. It is rare for 1st winter White-fronts to show black belly barring but it does (clearly) occur. I really am fond of geese so it was good to see these birds at relatively close range although the light was cr*p.

After this early success we visited the Great Big Dump where the stench was particularly bad but luckily we connected with most of the desired species and most importantly of all quickly: Hen Harrier, White-tailed Eagle, Scaup, Long-tailed Duck and Bearded Tit.

After this we had a drive by Great Grey Shrike but failed to find a Hawkie that has been hawking his wares recently from the top of some street lamps.

We headed for the coast at Saltnes with a vague hope of divers but were shocked to find two Curlews. It was bitterly cold here and the shoreline was froze n so I hope they had some immediate plans of heading south.

Kurefjorden was not yet frozen due to the wind but had few birds with Great Crested Grebe and Velvet Scoter the highlights. At the mouth of the fjord we found no overwintering raptors but two Rock Pipits were good.

the stubble field the geese had chosen was close to a farm

a large flock of Jackdaws (kaie) and Crows (kråke) joined the geese causing the geese to fly a 100 metres

the 1st winter albifrons White-fronted Goose (tundragås). From the side the white around the bill is not visible. Note the black nail to the bill confirming it as a juvenile/1st winter

here we can see a minimal amount of white over the bill. Note that it has some black streaking on the belly. This is at the extreme end for birds of this age and has confused some observers and led them to aging it as a 2nd winter which it clearly isn't

this bird is advanced in its post juvenile moult and has developed adult like rear flanks

snaphot from the video showing the bill in better detail

another video snapshot. These video snapshots are better than I can get from cropping stills

Bean (sædgås) and the White-fronted Goose. It was quite difficult to pick out the White-front and it was overlooked on the first day he geese were seen

Two rossicus Bean Geese - note the short necks and high foreheads (in comparison to fabalis)

the goose flock in flight. It is only the ill colour that separates (for me) the White-front from the Beans

a final picture of the geese

The Hen Harrier (myrhauk) at Øra. This bird is reported as a 2cy female but I'm not sure the secondaries are dark enough

one of two Buzzards (musvåk) we had today

we surprised these 2 Curlews (storspove) in a fozen bay and they then flew past us calling

we only managed to relocate a single bird resting on an icy island

two very unseasonal Meadow Pipits (heipiplerke) in highly unsuitable habitat

Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke) is an expected although very scarce species in winter

Two female Scaup (bergand) with a male Tufted Duck (toppand)

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) on someones garden list. The traces of black in the tail and dark head show this bird to be a sub adult

the first picture of the day taken at 0924 in poor light. Can you see two of the five Little Grebes that were here?