drumming White-backed Woodpecker

 Today the weather forecast predicted nice, sunny and calm weather. So I went out to Kjenes edellovsskog on Lindås to try to record the drumming of White-backed Woodpecker.

It took me about two hours to find a steady White-backed after seeing some flyby's and hearing distant drumming. Being patient (I didn't use playback because it can have the opposite effect), I recorded both drumming and calls of a female. Happy about that. You can hear the results below. Otherwise, a distant calling Nutcracker, a calling White-tailed Eagle, a noisy pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers, three Nuthatches and at least three singing Marsh Tits.

🎤 White-backed Woodpecker drumming female

🎤 White-backed Woodpecker calling female

For comparison, listen to the recording of the drumming of Great Spotted Woodpecker (the day after at Gimmelandsdalen)

🎤 Great Spotted Woodpecker drumming male

The drumming of the White-backed reminds a bit of a quickly bouncing ping pong ball, becoming weaker as it ends, while that of the Great Spotted is short, monotonous and abruptly ending. 

new lens

 I bought a Nikkor Z 180-600mm and had to try it out, of course. So I went to Tveitevannet in very grey light and tried for the Common Ringed Plover at Flesland. I didn't see that one, but a singing Yellowhammer made me happy. It is not going well with that species. Also, a Skylark was singing there. How long is it going to take before that one disappears? My first singing Song Thrush of the year, a flyby Goldfinch and a few migrating Lapwings are also worth mentioning. On the way to Kalandsvannet, I found two Pink-footed Geese along Skeievegen. These were quite distant birds, so it was a good opportunity to try the new lens, see below.

Nothing to mention at Kalandsviken and at Tveitevannet the Gadwall was still present.

 Pink-footed Geese

Herring Gull at Tveitevannet

Kingfisher in Bergen

 Last week a Common Kingfisher was found by Terje Hansen at Hamretjern in Bergen. It was seen only briefly a few times and photgraphed tw days after discovery. After one-and-a-half week of absence I found it back today. At first I heard it call frequently. After searching for about 20 minutes I saw it fly by. After that i found it perched three times. As it was shy, the bird flew away almost immediatly. Therefore the pics were not very good, but at least I got a few record shots. I managed to get  a sound recording. Anyhow, nice bird for Bergen!

record shots of the Common Kingfisher

🎤 Common Kingfisher

beautiful Whooper Swan at Hamretjern

drake Common Goldeneye at Hamretjern

the Tawny Owl at Stend

Earlier in the week I recorded Whooper Swan and White-throated Dipper as you can hear below...

🎤 Whooper Swan

🎤 White-throated Dipper

Azure Tit

 On Monday an Azure Tit was discovered at Brekstad near Trondheim. A bird I wanted to see! So on Friday I took together with Terje Hansen and Anders Heien a flight to Trondheim, and with a hired car we drove a two hours drive to the spot. We arrived as late as 13:35. The bird was seen 10 minutes before we arrived. Knowing it would be dark around 15:30 we waited, quite nervous about the chances of seeing the bird before dark... But after about three quarters of an hour it came to the feeders. What a bird. It was difficult to take pictures in the fading light, so I concentrated on watching it through my bins. I got one useful picture though😊