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