Norway Birding - 21st March (Day 3 of 6)

Today felt like it was to be a birding day proper and we were up at 04:00 and donned our Arctic onesy's ready for a four hour stint in the floating hides run by Ørjan Hansen at Arctic Tourist in the Batsfjord Harbour. I think both Trev and I were a bit sceptical of these hides having seen very little in the harbour around the hides yesterday afternoon and seeing how close to shore they were. Still, when we arrived at the hides at 05:00 there were probably a thousand or so seaduck present including Steller’s, Common and King Eider and Long-tailed Duck, many being very close to the hide. The approach of the RIB to collect us to take us the 50m or so to the hides soon put pay to this and virtually all the duck were flushed and we clambered aboard the small hide (there is also a large hide but as there were seven people in this we opted for the small hide) opened the flaps and stared onto an empty sea. However, within a short while the first Steller’s Eider appeared and over the course of the four hours we were in the hide we had great views of all the previously mentioned duck species, some down to four metres or so. There was a great deal of calling and courting, especially amongst the Steller’s, and it was great to watch these birds at such close range and obscured from their view. We rattled off hundreds of photos and I filled two 64GB cards, it was almost a relief to leave the hide safe in the knowledge that we had secured some reasonable shots but now not having to process anymore! Although the temperature was around -8c the hide was surprisingly warm and the arctic suites were almost too warm but my feet felt like the ice had taken control and I lost all sense of feeling. Unfortunately, during our time in the hide the light was not great for photography and there was regularly heavy snow further compromising the light, furthermore, beyond the area where the ducks gather is a red building, this casts a red light onto the water affecting the images. While in the hide we also had good views of Glaucous Gull, Purple Sandpiper and Hooded Crow plus Mallard trying to get in in the action – I don’t think either of us took shots of the latter though.

King Eider - we had close views of up to 10 birds, a further 50+ were present further into the harbour

Female King Eider

Female Steller's Eider

Steller's Eider - Absolutely stunning birds. My favourite part of the plumage is the sprig of broccoli on the nape. This Eider spent more time close to the shore than the other Eiders and is close in behaviour to the dabbling ducks.

Adult male Common Eider

1st year male Common Eider

Female Common Eider

Female Common Eider

Adult male Long-tailed Duck

1st year male (left) and female (right) Long-tailed Duck

Purple Sandpiper

Photography in an Arctic onesy

After the hide we headed back to the hotel for breakfast and packed our bags. A scan over the very southern area of the harbour (Maritbukta) produced four Black Guillemot and a handful of Common and Steller’s Eider. We then headed back over the pass which was a lot clearer than yesterday and the views were fantastic. Trev did attempt an off road approach and drove between the snow poles marking the edge of the road and we plunged into the deep off road snow, I found this slightly hilarious once I had pushed the car free and Trev did a good job of driving out of the snow but it could potentially have been a bit serious, Trev eventually saw the funny side I am sure.

Batsfjord 

Mountain pass between Batsfjord and Tana Valley

We passed through the Tana Valley heading for Vadso and along the way we did a little birding but saw relatively little, a couple of Willow Tits nest building, Bullfinch, Great Tit, Greenfinch, Red-breasted Merganser and few sea-duck on the Tana Delta. The snow was so thick though that birding was difficult and it was difficult to pull over to enable us to scan or walk anywhere.

At the Varangerbotn junction we topped up with fuel and grabbed some food before heading along the coast for Nesseby. We enjoyed superb views over Veranger Fjord now that the weather had cleared and while I stared out to sea looking for seaduck, Trev, while driving, spotted an adult White-tailed Eagle sat on the near shore. We manoeuvred the car alongside the snowdrifts bordering the road, hopped out the car and at a range of 300m the bird flushed. We had rather unsatisfactory views of the bird in flight. We then headed to the carpark by Nesseby Church parked up, had a quick bite of lunch and then hopped out of the car. It was biting cold, amazingly cold, and it felt like our faces had frozen almost immediately and our teeth were about to shatter. I took some snaps of the church in the snow and then we both went to the shore and took snaps of some obliging Purple Sandpipers which were feeding on the sandy beach which was a little alien to us having largely experienced them on the rocks of UK shores. We then spent some time at the small fishing harbour at Nesseby where there where small numbers of gull including an Iceland Gull and a few Glaucous Gull, argentatus Herring Gull and Kittiwake present. A fishing boat approaching the harbour was followed by thousands of large gull species but they peeled away before reaching the harbour but not before an immature White-tailed Eagle approached from a distance and passed through the flock to assess the feeding opportunities before disappearing towards the hills on the south side of the fjord. There was little else to be seen, six Red-breasted Merganser and the occasional Black Guillemot were offshore while dried Cod hung on the drying racks to be picked over by the crows. I went up to my thighs in snow and had to commando roll myself out, I stood, checked no one was looking and continued photographing the Cod.

Nesseby Church

Purple Sandpiper

Adult Kittiwake

Fishing boat off Nesseby

Cod

After Nesseby we drove slowly towards Vadso stopping occasionally but saw little new, although lots of seaduck were present offshore and a small flock of 20 or so Waxwing were seen on the approach into Vadso and there were good numbers of Steller’s Eider, Common Eider and Long-tailed Duck in Vadso Harbour. We checked into the Vadso Fjord Hotel had a beer and then had to cross back across the bridge on foot in the ice cold after finding that the hotel did not serve food. Had a big pizza dinner at Opticom, a couple of beers and then crashed.

See also:
Day 1 here;
Day 2 here;
Day 4 here; and
Days 5 and 6 here.

Norway Birding - 20th March (Day 2 of 6)

After a very short night we were up at 07:00 surprisingly bright eyed and bushy tailed. We arranged for our hire car, which we were due to collect from Europcar last night from the airport, to be delivered to the hotel, had breakfast and then got on the road in beautiful sunny conditions. As we loaded the car a flock of 15 Waxwing swirled overhead, we grabbed for the cameras hoping they would settled but they disappeared around the buildings and out of view so we set-off on the road keen to get to Batsfjord. We spent the next 30 minutes driving round the small town trying to find the road out, reaching the main road twice before deciding we were heading the wrong way and heading back into town once again. However, this was not an entirely wasted venture as we did come across a flock of Waxwing numbering around 100 feeding on Rowan berries in a garden, in the sunshine in lovely snowy conditions they gave some good photo opportunities. Its always great to see these birds and I don’t think any birder could tire of them.

Waxwing in Kirkennes

We headed out on our drive passing back past the airport when the conditions once again began to close in, the sky blackened and the snow began to fall. In the windy conditions we could barely see a thing as Trev drove the E6 heading north towards Verangabotn, occasionally conditions were so bad that we could see no more than a few metres in front. Birds were thin on the ground but we didn’t really stop anyway for any length of time due to the terrible conditions, an occasional Hooded Crow, Raven, a raft of Eider and a glimpse of some white jumped redpolls which I claimed as Arctic Redpoll but could easily have been Mealy Redpoll, although having seen Arctic and Mealy later in the trip looking back I am confident they were Arctic Redpoll. At Verangabotn we turned west and then north and drove through the snowbound Tana Valley scanning the trees for Hawk Owl as we went but to no avail, a single Fieldfare was just about all we saw. The snow was thick and visibility poor and while this all sounds somewhat negative the experience of a blasting polar scene was something that neither of us had experienced and we were somewhat in awe.

Driving conditions were fairly difficult!

We had learnt earlier that the pass to Batsfjord had been closed and that vehicles were being convoyed across with a snow plough in front and a rescue vehicle behind so we aimed to get to the 14:30 convoy which we did with plenty of time to spare. I birded the birch scrub for a while at the station before the crossing but it was deadly quiet in the thick snow and very slippery underfoot. The pass crossing was spectacular, a desolate mountain plateau with little but snow and a few rocks and sprigs of grass with the occasional building which looked to be a summer farming retreat. Not a bird was seen and occasionally the scenery was so white that it was impossible to separate land from sky. We did see our first Reindeer which looked very much at home in the snow.

We eventually dropped in to the small, but rather industrial looking town, with a strong smell of festering fish that is Batsfjord and spent the final couple of hours of the day birding the harbour. Fairly quickly we came across a couple of male Steller’s Eider preening on the shore, stunning birds even in the subdued light of heavy snow, we were to see around 15 birds during the course of our birding this afternoon. There were good numbers of gull with the rather slaty looking argentatus Herring Gulls causing some confusion to begin with, amongst these were good numbers of Glaucous Gulls with a mix of ages, Great Black-backed Gull, Kittiwake and a single 1st winter Iceland Gull. There were small numbers of Long-tailed Duck with 25 birds in total and a smaller number of Common Eider. Perhaps best of all was a flock of around 200 Purple Sandpiper roosting on rock groynes on one of the promontories within the harbour. They allowed close approach over the rather treacherous snow covered groynes. Small numbers of Black Guillemot were present with most birds now in summer plumage. After a very tiring couple of days we booked into our hotel, the Polar Hotel, had a couple of beers and a red wine were very welcome before crashing.

Steller's Eider - Not the best shots but my first views of a lifer

Glaucous Gull - 1st winter

Glaucous Gull - Adult winter

argentatus Herring Gulls - Note the dark upper parts and the extensive white in the wingtip especially the outer two primaries (P9 and P10)

Mixed group of gulls including Glaucous, argentatus Herring Gull and Great Black-backed. We struggled with the identification of the sub-adult bird in the middle of the shot due to its small size and bill shape but concluded it to be a runt argentatus Herring Gull. Any suggestions most welcome.

Purple Sandpiper

Purple Sandpiper

See also:
Day 1 here;
Day 3 here;
Day 4 here; and
Days 5 and 6 here.

Norway Birding - 19th March (Day 1 of 6)

I have long wanted to visit the Varanger area of Norway famous in birding circles for its wintering seaduck and gulls, in particular, I wanted to see the almost mythical Steller's Eider and the glamorous but not so mythical Pine Grosbeak. I had teamed up with my lifelong friend Trevor Codlin (The Barley Bird-er) and we had been planning the trip since before Christmas. There were no ticks on the trip for Trev but he was keen to visit the area and to spend a long weekend birding.

Logistics
We flew SAS from London Heathrow (Terminal 2) to Kirkennes and then onto Oslo but it is also possible to fly to Ivalo I suspect although I didn't look into the logistics of this, we did meet two British Birders who had done just this. On the outward journey we had an almost five hour stop-over in Oslo so decided to employ Simon Rix (see blog at Oslo Birder) for a couple of hours birding, this worked very well and Simon was an excellent guide. For the ground arrangements in the Varanger area we used Din Tours who were excellent during the booking process. We used their ‘self guiding’ system which involved receiving gen for the sites and also a Sat Nav to guide us around. However, while we thought this package was to be in the hire car which we collected at Kirkennes we did not receive it until we arrived at Vadso and by then we felt it was not needed due to the abundance of local information particularly at the excellent Vadso Fjord Hotel which is set-up for birders. I recommend following an itinerary such as ours and booking this for oneself.

Itinerary
This was the itinerary that we had devised for the trip:

• Day 1 (19th) - Flight London Heathrow to Oslo (10:20-13:30) then Oslo (17:44-20:00) to Kirkenes. 2.5 hours birding with Simon Rix during Oslo stop over. Spend night in Kirkenes at the Scandic Hotel.
• Day 2 (20th) - Head out fairly early for drive to Batsfjord with stops en-route at Tana Valley, Kongsfjord/Batsfjord Mountain. Drive is around 3.5 to 4 hours so aim to arrive at Batsfjord at around 15:00 for last few hours around harbour/town. Night Batsfjord in Polar Hotel.
• Day 3 (21st) - Floating photographic hide in Batsfjord for up to 6 hours followed by local birding. Travel to Vadso after hide. Drive to Vadso is around 2.5 hours. Night in Vadso at Vadso Fjord Hotel.
• Day 4 (22nd) - Birding Vadso to Vardo. Night in Vadso at Vadso Fjord Hotel.
• Day 5 (23rd) - Head for Pasvik Valley (2 hour drive) local birding but mainly time around feeders at Birk Husky. Night at Birk Husky in the Pasvik Valley.
• Day 6 (24th) - An hour or so at first light Pasvik then head for airport. Around 45 minutes back to the airport so will need to leave Pasvik Valley by 09:30 to get to airport for flight. Flight 11:30-13:35 Kirkennes-Oslo then 15:05-16:25 Oslo-London. 

Weather
The weather during the trip was very variable and changed rapidly. On the first day we experienced severe blizzard conditions but thereafter largely it was cloudy with occasional snow showers or sunny. Winds were generally light to moderate although it was also calm on a couple of days but with stronger winds on our first day. Temperatures ranged from -3 down to -15 during the day plus wind chill.

Diary - 19th March
The start of our trip to Norway and I overslept this morning, I meant to get up at 05:00 but didn't wake until 05:40 so after a mad dash around the house gathering bags I headed to the office to meet Trev at 06:15. We then drove up the M3 to Heathrow which was actually not too bad and arrived at Terminal 2 at around 08:00 for our 10:55 flight to Oslo. We had some breakfast and chilled before boarding plane. All went smoothly to Oslo and landed at 13:30, collected bags and checked them back in for internal flight to Kerkennes and then headed out to departures collection point to meet Simon Rix. Simon is an English birder who moved to Norway 11 years ago and has set up a tour company leading birders in the local area. It turned out that Simon and I had met one another in 1987 at Dungeness Bird Observatory when I was an assistant warden there. While there were not a great deal of birds to be seen we decided that a few hours of birding was to be more enjoyable than four hours sitting in the airport. Our main stop was for a flock of Taiga Bean Goose that stage here between their wintering grounds in Scotland and their breeding grounds in Arctic Russia. More can be read about the Bean Geese on the 'Angus Bean Goose Blog' here. The drive to the Bean Goose site was through a patchwork of pine forest, cultivated fields and stubble. We saw a few common species en-route such as Bullfinch, Mistle Thrush, House Sparrow and the like, a Great Grey Shrike dashed across the road in front of the car and we stopped and got some fairly good scope views, Lapwings and Yellowhammer singing in the background. We continue on to the Taiga Bean Goose site at Nikevegen, Simon pointing out a small stream with Eurasian Beaver signs including a large partly felled Silver Birch. On arrival the Taiga Bean Geese were on view at the at the far end of a field probably a couple of hundred meters away and so giving fair views, a number were sporting neck collars including GPS collars and standard unscripted collars allowing their movements to be tracked. We added a few more species to the day including Great Tit, Coal Tit and a superb flyover of Whooper Swan with about 20 seen in all and a single Common Crane. We then headed onto a small church and viewpoint at Udenes overlooking the Glomma River. On our way we saw two huge Moose in a field, one animal kneeling to feed on the fresh grass growth, Simon indicated that he occasionally sees them doing this in the spring. At Udenes birds seen included a couple of Whooper Swan, Goldeneye, two Common Crane circling high and droping into a distant field and a calling Willow Tit were added. We then headed back to the airport stopping for better views of the Great Grey Shrike. We said our goodbyes to Simon before joining a massive que for security at the airport. Simon's write-up of the excursion can be read here. A beer in the departure lounge was most welcome.

Taiga Bean Geese at Nikevegen part of the flock of around 150 birds that stage here. The bird to right of centre at rear has a satellite tracking neck collar.

Whooper Swan - Nikevegen

Moose feeding on fresh spring grass

Great Grey Shrike

The flight took off more or less on time from Oslo to Kirkennes and all seemed good, we became suspicious when we were close to the airport and the plane started to circle, and then came the announcement, we were unable to land due to snow and poor visibility, we were to circle and wait for an opening in the weather. Then the next announcement and more positive this time, the weather had begun to clear and we would be landing and so the bumpy decent began. As we approached the runway the pilot roared the engine and we climbed steeply and suddenly away from the ground, the landing had been aborted, and then came the announcement, we were heading for Utsjokl where we were cleared for landing. We studied the map, it was miles away, the other side of a spur of Finland that projects into Norway. Still, it was good to see the lights on the ground after a very bumpy ride. So, we sat on the plane and then in the airport for around two hours before our bus finally arrived, just as we were getting diner, for our five hour drive eastwards back to Kirkennes. We left at 23:20 and arrived in Kirkennes at around 04:40. We checked into the Scandic Hotel and had a couple of hours sleep.

Our grounded SAS plane at Utsjokl

See also:

Day 2 here;

Day 3 here;

Day 4 here; and

Days 5 and 6 here.

Denny Wood - 13th March

I have been absolutely wiped out by a nasty chest infection this week but still have had to face work which has been pretty tough, come Friday though and a doctors followed by hospital appointment I threw in the towel and took much of the day off. I am not one to sit at home and revel in illness and I sought fresh air and some space. So i decided to have a gentle potter around Denny Wood with my camera, not hoping to see much but more just to relax into the open air. There were around six Hawfinch in the area, perhaps 50 or so Redwing many in full song and Dartford Warbler showed okay on the heath but it was just a pleasure to be out and see some common woodland birds.

Blue Tit must surely be on the top of peoples want list when they travel to Europe from overseas, absolutely stunning little birds just a little under appreciated because they are so common

Great Tit

Marsh Tit

Nuthatch

Pied Wagtail

Chaffinch

Treecreeper

Dartford Warbler

Pennington Marshes - 9th March

I have not been out in the field for a while now and come Monday I was itching to get out with the reports of spring migrants, Osprey, Wheatear, Sand Martin and an Alpine Swift, scattered around the country my hopes were high for at least a Wheatear. However, over the last few days I have been knocked back with some nasty bug imported to the household by Tobias and the last weekend was spent on the settee with not even the 6-Nations to watch, it was hence quite a drag to walk around Pennington Marshes especially as the weather was so dreary with thick overcast and a strong south-westerly.

Pennington Marshes are starting to turn to spring with the sound of displaying Lapwing ringing out, Dunnock giving there somewhat undistinguished warble, Sky Lark in full melodic flow overhead and the blooming of Gorse gaining momentum. On Pennington Marsh there were at least six Ruff all still in mottled winter plumage with a further two males on Fishtail Lagoon starting to gain their summer plumage.

Ruff

Numbers of duck have shown a slight dip with, perhaps, almost a halving in numbers of Teal and Wigeon since my last visit on 4th February, the males though are looking fine. With close views I always marvel at the fine vermiculation on the flanks of Teal and Wigeon - a feature common to many of the dabbling duck.

Wigeon

Teal

The old landfill always supports one or two pairs of Sky Lark and this year appears to be no exception but with all the dogs that run across the grassland here I have no idea of how successful they are. Still, today they were singing in earnest barely taking time to come to ground.

Sky Lark

Shelduck are superb birds, almost tropical in appearance, and in the spring they become pretty feisty to boot. Today there were several groups all gathered staking out their territories. Although this appeared to be a mainly male affair the females too were involved backing up the males.

Shelduck

I had some good views of Redshank but I don't know what to say about them - they are noisy and have red legs. Nice pose though.....

Redshank

I spent a little bit of time watching a summer plumaged Cormorant feeding in Butts Lagoon. It was diving very frequently and seemed to be eating small prey items but I could never make out what it was taking, in the shot below the bird is clearly swallowing something - maybe there is an abundance of shrimp/prawns in the lagoon.

Cormorant - With its white summer head filaments

Gorse

Dunnock - I never managed to get the bird in full song but this bird was avidly singing away.

The number of gulls on Efford Lagoon is building with the spring migration but today I didn't have the energy to go through them, I made a quick scan and took a few snaps in the hope there would be a Audouin's Gull amongst them when I reviewed the images back home but it was not to be. The below shows that the gathering was made up of Herring Gull, Black-headed Gull but there were also a few Lesser Black-backed and Greater Black-backed Gull that didn't quite make the frame.

Herring and Black-headed Gulls

Herring Gulls

Stokes Bay, Gosport - 3rd March

A fine adult male Surf Scoter has been present in Stokes Bay, Gosport since 25th February and after our return from Cornwall I was itching to get down there and see it. So before work I made a short visit to the site. Luckily the bird was showing when I arrived although it was rather distant, almost in the middle of the Solent in fact. While views were okay through the scope the bird was too far out for anything other than record shots.

Surf Scoter - The bird was in the company of a male and female Common Scoter

Surf Scoter (bird on right) and Common Scoter with the Isle of Wight and 

Osbourne House in the background

Cornwall - 28th February - 2nd March

We have not visited our cottage at Trowan, located on the coast between St.Ives and Zennor, for several months now so we were looking forward to a break in the west. I was not planning on doing a great deal of birding due to both Sarah and I needing some RnR time, the plan was to potter. Nonetheless, there were a few goodies around and I couldn't resist sneak peaking them. 

The Saturday was set-aside for relaxing and we had a pleasant morning walk with our friends Nigel Wheatley and Alice and their young sons Ned and Tom down Cot Valley. Catching up took precedent over birding but we did see a Chough over the valley and great views of around five Bottle-nosed Dolphin feeding at the mouth of the valley and around the Brison's. One animal was a particularly large male and it showed well, even breaching clear of the water at one point - unfortunately I had left my camera in the car. The rest of the day was spent lunching and pottering in St. Ives before heading back to the cottage to watch a little of the 6-Nations.

On the Sunday we planned to take Tobias to the Eden Project but the Maenporth King Eider was deemed by me to be 'on the way'. We stopped at the cove at around 10:30 and Tobias and Sarah pottered on the beach while I dashed up the coast path to the south of the cove. After a bit of scanning I eventually picked up the King Eider rather distantly offshore accompanied by a female Eider. I spent around 20 minutes squinting into the distance making out the key features, orange bill and pale breast, took a few crap shots and then headed off content that my views would get no better. A pair of Peregrine showed well on the cliff face near to my vantage point and Fulmar gargled and spluttered from the cliffs nearby. We headed to the Eden Project and spent the rest of the day here, the only birds seen were Yellow White-eye and Crested Partridge, definitely not tickable through!

King Eider - First winter male of Maenporth, Falmouth

On Monday we had to head back to Hampshire so I decided to get up early and do a little birding before a day on the road. I decided that in the blasting north-westerly the Penzance area would be the best bet for some shelter so I started at the marina scanning for seaduck and diver. There were at least five Great-northern Diver visible rather distantly offshore and amongst these a Black-throated type, I  could see no white flank patch and could vaguely make out (or imagine!) a dark throat necklace and decided that it was most likely the Pacific Diver that was wintering - not the best of views and perhaps a little inconclusive! Also offshore were two Common Scoter and a female Eider but viewing conditions were difficult in the wind. I spent some time around Newlyn Harbour and Marazion seeing little of note and decided to head a little inland for the Little Bunting at Gulval, just to the north of Penzance. I parked the car, walked a short distance up the footpath and before too long connected with the bird in a Blackthorn hedge. The bird was in the company of Chaffinch's and they had clearly found a nice, food rich weedy patch alongside a Cauliflower field to feed. I spent around 15 minutes with the bird during which time it called frequently. And that was it, I had to head back to the cottage, load the car and head back home. Not bad for only around three hours in the field over the weekend.

Little Bunting - Gulval, Penzance