The kingfisher edition

 WOW turned up two kingfishers which stayed around most of the day - and the next one as well. I can honestly say I have not had as prolonged, close views of kingfisher ever. They chased each other round the reeds, sat on posts, preened, washed and fished. Up till then we thought the highlight was the common sandpiper preening on the trestle right in front of the window, or the two ringed common terns we spotted, but we were proved wrong when the two kingfishers turned up. Kingfishers are occasional visitors to WOW, usually in August/September when the youngsters are chased out by the parents. They do not usually stay long and very rarely give good views. There are fish in the reserve but nowhere they can safely breed so they usually move on. The deeper pools have given them a chance to fish and they are catching small fish. Hopefully they will be a more regular feature at WOW. Let's start with the common sandpiper on the trestle which was there for 15 - 20 minutes.

The kingfishers pitched up later and were still around when I left after an hour plus of watching them. They also showed well over the weekend and were enjoyed by quite a few folk who posted photos on the RSPB WOW Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RSPBBelfastWOW

This week the male kingfisher was still doing its stuff and we had a couple of ruff  and a greenshank. There was a third ringed common tern which has been forwarded to the relevant people. The two terns from last week came from the Blue Circle island in Larne Lough and the South Wall in Dublin - ringed as a chick in June 2021.

Ruff

Ruff

Alcedo athis

Ringed tern, white PNP - best I could do!

Off to sunny Bolton for 10 days, looking to add to the 2024 list if I am lucky. 

2024

147: Sedge warbler

NCCP

57: Common tern

WOW

78: Kingfisher

79: Sedge warbler

80: Greenshank

Oslo mini break

WOW on the day before we left still delivered close-ups of ruff.

But enough of WOW and on to Oslo. It is 42 years since we visited Norway. We were there for a holiday in July 1975 and at that stage I was very much a novice birder. I have no list of what I saw as I didn’t keep lists back then. What I did was record any new birds in my guide book with the date and the place. About a year later I found new birds were harder to come by so I started to list any birds I saw in a notebook and added new birds to the book. Over the years the new birds got fewer and the notebooks took over.  By going through the book I have found out that in two weeks in Norway I was able to add 17 new birds to the list at Flam, Balestrand, Kjossfoss, Finse, Vatnahalsen, Heirina and Esefjord. We had a fjord and mountain holiday at Balestrand and Vatnahalsen.

Some of these were birds which I now regularly see at home but saw for the first time in Norway  – sparrowhawk, golden plover, raven, dipper, wheatear, long-tailed tit, tree sparrow and reed bunting. Others were birds which are easy to see on the mainland but not in Ireland – nuthatch, willow tit, and redstart. The third group were continental specialities such as nutcracker, white wagtail, garden warbler, bluethroat, twite and Lapland bunting. I must admit to a pang of conscience about the garden warbler. 42 years down the line I fear it was either a chiffchaff or a willow warbler. I remember the bluethroat, nuthatch and Lapland bunting clearly and I also remember struggling to identify juvenile starlings which I was not familiar with. It was a good but expensive, holiday for a young couple not long married and before kids came along. 

Fast forward to 2015 and Northern Ireland drew Norway in the World Cup qualifiers  in October 2017and suddenly there is a reason to go back and to stay in Oslo with a Norwegian friend who is married and lives in Bangor but keeps a flat in Oslo. We were really supposed to be there in spring but October would have to do. Hence we flew into Oslo for a five day/six night mini break with Ingeborg in a flat at Bergkrystallen at the end of Metro Line 4.  One thing hadn’t changed since 1975 – the prices were still horrendous. A piece of apple tart was £13.50, glass of wine £11, coffee £3.50, and beer up to £10 per pint. If you are birding in Oslo bring very deep pockets or stay with a friend. 

Birding was squeezed in along with football and sight-seeing but we did manage 36 species. Much of what we saw was easy to pick up and common – cormorant, mallard, herring gull, black headed gull, magpie, hooded crow, jackdaw, fieldfare, blue tit, great tit, and house sparrow. Fieldfares were everywhere and far outnumbered blackbirds which we only saw a couple of times.

 The first walk we did was round Sognsvann Lake and we spotted treecreeper, willow tit and goldcrest. 

Sognsvann Lake

Sognsvann Lake

 Ostensjovannet  added a good cross section of common species including feral greylag and Canada goose which I was not expecting to see. I was expecting coot, moorhen, little grebe, great-crested grebe, tufted, goldeneye, and mute swan.

 Ostensjovannet

 Ostensjovannet

 Ostensjovannet

 Ostensjovannet

 Ostensjovannet

 A feeding siskin flock was a bonus as was the Scandanavian variety of long-tailed tit which has an all white head. No photos I am afraid but this blog by an English birder, Simon Rix, who lives in Oslo has some cracking shots taken at Ostensjovannet, possibly the same birds I saw! The blog is well worth following and I have been using it for 18 months to prepare for the trip. If you are visiting Oslo it is a must read.

http://oslobirder.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/long-tailed-tits.html

 

The last morning saw us in the Botanical Gardens for an hour and a half before the rain came in and we were again surprised by the sheer numbers of fieldfares and crippling views of nutcrackers. Crossbills remained elusive, we think we heard them but could only see a nuthatch. There were also starlings, redwings, tree sparrows, blackbirds, robin and jay but the biggest surprise was a flyover jack snipe!! If I get back to Oslo I will be back there again, as it was a really good site. 

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Woodpigeons were scarce but we picked one up at Bergkrystallen. We also saw a great spotted woodpecker there as well as one at the ski jump. That only leaves the grey heron seen from the bus at Bygdoy to complete the set.Some birds gave close views for a phone shot.

Herring gull on the Opera House taking in the stunning view?

House Sparrow at the Fram museum

Ringed black headed gull at the Fram museum

 Sorry couldn't get the number with an iPhone!!

2017 

207: Nutcracker

208: Jack snipe

 

Bangor West
67: Greylag

Belfast WOW

97: Grey wagtail

Ruff time at WOW

WOW has been very good for ruff recently. Not only have there been up to ten present but they have been imitating the godwits and coming right up to the window and giving stunningly close views. Sometimes they are so close I cannot get the digiscoping equipment working as they fill the frame. There are over 100 teal and last week we had the first adult shelduck back in. There was also a kingfisher present, seen twice and perched on the post in front of the window just long enough to miss a photo opportunity - as I reached for the button it flew off. The terns are gone as are the swallows and martins but there were 60+ lapwings, 5 redshank and four grey herons.

The coastal patch remains quiet and has not produced a new bird since May. The tern loafing area only "terned" up sandwich, roseates have been conspicious by their absence and I have dipped on common and arctic as well as shearwater this year. I will struggle to hit 70 this year in North Down and am still 6 short of the 100 target at WOW/Kinnegar.

Belfast Lough

Sandwich tern

Adult and young

No apologies for the mass of ruff shots as it was difficult to leave any out. The first half dozen were taken on September 14th

Ruff and blackwits not digiscoped.

Digiscoped!!

Collective noun for ruff? Apparently it is "a hill"

Redshank at rest

Great black-backed gull

 The gull was eating a carcass and very mobile, again it was difficult to set up the digiscope as it was quite big and quite close. The next selection were snapped on September 21st.

Redshank reflection

A hill of ruffs, possibly juveniles

Juvenile ruff?

Adult male?

Thanks to Google I can now go in to WOW and say, "Look, a hill of ruffs" and be greeted with more scorn than normal. It makes a change to our usual counting method which involves liberal use of Ulster-Scots, as in a wheen of curlew,  a lock of geese or a wild lot o' mallard. "Look there's a quare lock of geese about th'day"

Today (September 28) again had 7 ruff and 25 species in all - low tide and no feeders. The bonus was a superb peregrine which appeared on two occasions, but better than that were three WOW ticks in the form of grey wagtail, stonechat and water rail, which was also a 2017 tick. It appeared briefly three times in the cut reed channel before I got the kit set up. The camera remained focused there for three hours but it never appeared again. There were lots of moorhens so here is one I took as practice in case the water rail re-appeared. It was an argy-bargy with a young moorhen which put me on to it. It then had the decency to re-appear briefly twice so everyone got a look at it.

Nice moorhen waiting for the water rail to appear

2017

206: Water rail

 
Bangor West
66: Raven 

Belfast WOW

95: Water rail
96: Stonechat
97: Grey wagtail