Jæren last weekend of October

During the last weekend of October, we went with Birdlife Bergen to Jæren. Twenty participants had high expectations to witness what could be one of the year's best weekends for vagrants. It has even become a tradition for local birders to organize ‘operasjon nana’ that weekend, specifically to find rare birds.

It was entertaining birding in nice weather: overcast and south-easterlies. But no superbirds showed up. There was nothing to complain about, though. Best birds were a nice first-year Little Gull, a drake American Wigeon, and a Firecrest.

Otherwise, there were loads of ducks. The highest count of Common Pochards was 76 birds on Ergavatnet, where we also saw good numbers of Northern Shovelers, Greater Scaups, a couple of Smews and the like. While watching these ducks, we had three encounters with Hen Harriers (a male and a ringtail). The coastal stops also produced many birds, including Grey Plovers, Long-tailed Ducks, many migrating Common Scoters, good numbers of Common Loons and much more.

The pictures below, taken with my new camera (a Nikon Z8), give a good impression of the variety of birds.

first-year Little Gull

Rooks in drizzle

Great Egrets

male Velvet Scoter

Coal Tit

Snow Bunting

Brant Geese hrota on the left, bernicla on the right

Long-tailed Duck

Nutcracker invasion

There is an invasion of the macrorhynchos subspecies of Northern Nutcracker going on. These birds come from the east. Although this subspecies has a small population in northern Norway, the birds involved in the invasion come from Siberia. They are called Siberian Nutcrackers.

One of these birds is at Hatten, and it is a confiding individual. So last Monday I went with my wife and daughter to see and feed it. Roald Hatten showed us the bird, and the pictures below are the result 😊

first autumn bird because of the white tips of the wing coverts

October going on

 More October birding. On Thursday I birded Herdlevær on my own and twitched a Great Grey Shrike, and on Saturday I had a good day’s birding on Herdla with Terje, Stein Rune, Ann Kristin and Espen, albeit in bad weather.

On Herdlevær, best bird was a Ring Ouzel. Further at Breivik a Richard's Pipit was still present. The Great Grey Shrike, a first-year bird found by Ann Kristin, was at Kalandsviken, and on Herdla it was good, with a fly-by Red-throated Pipit, a Richard's Pipit present, two Greenland White-fronted Geese, 7 Barnacles, and the possible American Wigeon. The last one gave bad views, but was the same bird as the one that was photographed the day before...And the Citrine Wagtail we thought we saw and heard turned out to be an Eastern Yellow Wagtail. Pictures of that bird on Sunday showed the bird much better in detail, i.e a light base to the lower mandible, dark lores and a straight supercilium not surrounding the ear coverts, and the narrow wingbars.

🎤 Ring Ouzel

🎤 Brambling calling and singing

🎤 Richard's Pipit

first weekend of October

The first weekend of October was windy and rainy, but on Saturday there was a window of good weather (dry, with no rain). We (Terje Hansen, Jørn Opsal, Stein Rune Risa, Walter Lemme, Bjarne Andersen, Kjetil Salomonsen, and I) spent almost the whole day at Herdla. The birding was nice: 10 Jack Snipes (!), a calling Yellow-browed Warbler, the two Citrine Wagtails still present, a Northern Shoveler, three loon species (Common, Red-throated, and Arctic), and a variety of waders still present.

On Sunday morning, I did a seawatch with Terje and Jørn, with Roald Hatten visiting for an hour or so. The seawatch delivered! We saw two Manx Shearwaters, two Sooty Shearwaters, and a group of 21 Barnacle Geese. One of the Sooty Shearwaters showed well. A fly-by shearwater in a storm is one of the most romantic moments in birding. See the picture below...

Jack Snipe, found with thermal binoculars

Sooy Shearwater (photo by Jørn Opsal)

seawatch shelter at Geitingneset

Two Citrine Wagtails on Herdla!!

 Only one afternoon at Herdla produced two Citrine Wagtails. First, Terje Hansen and Walter Lemme found a first-year bird at the golf course near the church. I twitched that one with Stein Rune Risa, though we only heard it. At the reserve, we joined other birders and had some nice, entertaining birding. Four Northern Shovelers were present, along with good numbers of waders. Alongside the usual suspects, two Little Stints, two Black-tailed Godwits and 35(!) Grey Plovers are worth mentioning. A short walk at the “bekkasinmyr” produced 5 Jack Snipe!

Meanwhile, Kjetil Salomonsen had refound the Citrine Wagtail at the manure storage (møkkakummen). When we checked there, we soon discovered that two birds were involved. Cool 😎! Below are some pictures and sound recordings. 

the upper bird with a warmer wash than teh lower bird 

🎤 Citrine Wagtail call

On the way back, we tried a Yellow-browed Warbler that was reported at Bønes in Bergen. That bird was still present.

🎤 Bar-tailed Godwit calling group

 

Quick visit to Breivik: Richard's Pipit

 If there is a Richard's Pipit about, I want to record it. So I went to Breivik early in the morning to do that with a bird already present for two days. Despite the windy circumstances I got a reasonable recording.  Listen below.

A very short visit to Herdlevær didn't produce much; only a haunting Merlin is worth mentioning..

🎤 Richard's Pipit flight call

European Roller at Eidfjord!!

  A European Roller is visiting Hordaland. It was first seen at Voss about two weeks ago. It was then rediscovered at Øvre Eidfjord on Sunday, September 6th. I had to work that day, so I couldn't try it. Only those who arrived in time saw it. Quite unexpectedly, it disappeared from that area after only a few hours...

But on Wednesday, September 16th, it was reported again from the same area, so I finally had the chance to see it.

On the morning of the 17th, I drove with Walter Lemme and Frode Falkenberg. After about 20 minutes of waiting, it appeared. Nice bird!!

 the worn flight feathers and coverts fits an adult bird (or may be second calendar year)

the bird sitting 'safe' at a distance

Herdla bad weather spectacle

 I thought I would have a few hours without rain on Herdla this afternoon, but that was definitely not the case. The rain didn't stop before I got back to the car.

As is often the case in September with these conditions, it was a wader bonanza with loads of waders. The problem was that they were very restless and flying around a lot, so I guess I didn't pick out all the good birds. Besides that, I had to dry my bins and scope continuously.

In just two hours, I saw at least 250 Common Snipes, 75 Bar-tailed Godwits, two Black-tailed Godwits, 150 Ruffs, 150 Dunlins, 30 Golden Plovers, 8 Grey Plovers, 50 Common Ringed Plovers, three Ruddy Turnstones, two Red Knots, a Curlew Sandpiper, and two fly-by Common Greenshanks. 75 Eurasian Widgeons, 25 Eurasian Teals, and 25 Mallards are also worth mentioning. 

Yellow-browed Warbler already in the 14th of September

I was Herdlevær again today, looking for small birds. Yesterday, a Yellow-browed Warbler was reported at there. When I arrived around 08:00, almost no birds were present, and it was raining. My initial thoughts were to try another place, but I kept on birding anyhow..

Around 10:00, I arrived at the "Bombehagen", and there a YBW was calling. It was at a different spot than the one the day before, so I assumed it was a new one. Anyhow, I managed a short recording and a moderate picture.

Further nice with common migrants, with many Blackbirds and Song Thrushes coming in. Also a nice group of Goldfinches with a lot of first-year birds...

my first YBW of the year

🎤 Yellow-browed Warbler call

first-year Goldfinch

Pallid Harrier

 Pallid Harrier is hard to get. Most birds are fly-bys, at least in Hordaland. Yesterday I got my bird...

Of course, I was driving when I saw the bird fly over the road at Kollsnes. I was on my way to Herdlevær and had not yet taken my gear out of my bag in the back of the car...

I immediately suspected a young Pallid Harrier. After I parked the car and got into my gear, the bird was already moving southwest. I quickly checked with my bins and confirmed it was a fine young Pallid Harrier. I had to take off the lens cap, turn up the light, and find the bird against the white sky, which can be quite difficult. And difficult it was!

But I managed some (bad) record shots that confirm the ID!

first calendar year Pallid Harrier

saw the bird mostly like this

this nice first year Kestrel was at Turøysundet later on the day