The all-weather-bird

 Always present and a very strong and intelligent species. I have a noisy family around my garden, breeding and wintering. I like them😃

Winter

 Lots of snow lately. This Blackcap is wintering in my garden and feeding on the seeds I provide😊

male Blackcap

november

 November has been a month with a lot of jobbing, bad weather and dark outside, so not much birding. Last Saturday, though, I saw a Firecrest at Milde, that was a new Bergen species for me. It was also nr 149 for my Bergen yearlist, meaning that I have December to try to get 150. White-tailed Eagle still missing...

Late autumn at Herdlevær

Many birds today at Herdlevær but only a few species. Thrushes and finches...

Got some nice recording of a Brambling. Hear below (best with headphones). The first with only the nasal call, on the second recording below you can hear the soft "tep" as well

📡Brambling   📡Brambling soft "tep"

Turøy

 Fine, dark autumn weather on Turøy. Most birds gone, but still some Robins and the like. Two Grey-headed Woodpeckers (male and female), two Tree Sparrows and two Blackcaps made the day

male Grey-headed Woodpecker

Herdlevær

Today after a period with heavy rains tried on Herdlevær. Lots of birds. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker best bird with two flyby Grey Wagtails coming in second place. Further lots of Robins, wrens, thrushes and so on, but all usual suspects...heard three times a call which reminded me of Humes Leaf Warbler, but I couldn't find the bird...I don't want to claim that one, but it sounded really good.

Nice recording of a Redwing below

📡 Redwing

rain, thrushes and a Eurasian Treecreeper

 Much rain today and loads of thrushes on the ground. Fieldfares, Blackbirds, Redwings and a few Song Thrushes at Flesland gård and the Marin biological Station. Further a Goldfinch and four Tree Sparrows. Below a recorded of a Eurasian Treecreeper

📡 Treecreeper

Herdla

Today a visit to Herdla. It is October, so have to get out when possible😊. It was nice, but no shocking events...

A group of 24 Pink-footed Geese, two Northern Pintails, some 80 Wigeons, three Grey Plovers and some Dunlins on the fields. A walk at Herdla Fort produced a very vocal male Grey-headed Woodpecker, some Common Crossbills, two Nuthatches(!) and a flyby Goldfinch. Lots of Fieldfares, Common Starlings and Robins, as well as a few Willow Tits made the trip worth wile. Listen some sound recordings below.

📡 Grey-headed Woodpecker and Common Crossbill

I think it's difficult to judge which type crossbill is involved here. There are described 6 different types, based on differences in calls (A, B, C, D, E and F). I think the recorded crossbills are type A...or C...

One can read and hear more about this in Dutch Birding 22:61-107 and the CD Introduction to vocalizations of crossbills in north-western Europe, both by Magnus Robb, both published in 2000

fantastic weather on October 15th

 It was fantastic weather today...tried Herdlevær, but it was as expected very quiet. The only birds worth mentioning were a Grey-headed Woodpecker, which was calling a lot and flying around and a few Goldfinches...and of course Robins and Wrens I around very corner😊

nice birds, these wrens

Bearded Reedling at Herdlevær

I missed on a little group of three Bearded Reedlings at Herdlevær yesterday😑. I wasn't able to visit, so I went to Herdlevær today without any expectations or hope at all, because they were not seen after 15:00 on wednesday. It was by the way a group of Norwegian birds, ringed this year in southern Norway...

But at a totally different place I found them back. It went quick. I couldn't believe my ears first. I only heard them vaguely and couldn't locate them. Then I decided to get a bit closer as they were calling again. After that I could make a few sound recordings. Then the four (!) birds flew away after about ten minutes, during which I could take more sound recordings. Searching afterwards with a few present birders was fruitless. It could well be that they slept on the spot and flew away after my encounter...

The sound recordings are quite distant and not very good as I could not get closer than about 50 meters, but one can hear the unmistakable calls of the birds😊

📡 here and here (best with headphones)

Further rather quiet with among others one Lesser Whitethroat (curruca), 10 Goldfinches, only one Chiffchaff (collybita) and lots of Goldcrests. At Breivik I saw one Northern Pintail and further the group of Pink-footed Geese with two Barnacles still present.