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Isn't it Good: Norwegian Weekend March 2017 (1 Viewer)

Andrew Whitehouse

Professor of Listening
Supporter
Scotland
In the spirit of the recent 'Weekend only birding trips abroad' thread, I set out this weekend on a brief foreign birding jaunt of my own this weekend. I didn't travel all that far - just three hundred miles to the other side of the North Sea in southwestern Norway. The prospects were good with a fine array of wintering and resident birds in a variety of habitats and above all the prospect of catching up with perhaps my most sought after European bird.

A trip of any kind to Norway isn't really ever going to be a budget one, particularly when I only booked the flights a couple of weeks ago. The breakdown of costs was as follows:

Flight: Return from Aberdeen to Stavanger with Wideroe - £213.
Car Hire: Two days with Hertz via Expedia - £83.
Hotel: Smarthotel Forus in Sandnes. Possibly the most boring hotel in the world, but I quite like a boring hotel on a birding trip. Clean, quiet, free parking and easy access to the main roads. Also relatively cheap for two nights - £90.
Fuel: Most of a tank - £33
Food: Probably the area where Norway is most expensive. Prices for most things seemed 50-100% higher than in the UK. Even just eating takeaway pizzas and snacks from supermarkets probably about £50 in two days.

Although the costs are a bit high, it might easily cost fairly close to this for me to do a weekend in southern England, particularly if booked just two weeks ahead. Costs could obviously be reduced by having others along and booking further in advance. However, as you'll see, it was totally worth it.

Before forging ahead, I couldn't have seen half as much as I did without using the excellent Artsobservasjoner website. Don't go birding in Norway without it:
http://www.artsobservasjoner.no/
 
Day One: 17th March 2017

After landing at Stavanger I picked up the hire car and headed about thirty minutes south of the airport to a wooded area by a lake called Njaskogen. The forest there had held my main quarry during the winter, but there hadn't been any reports for nearly two weeks. Perhaps it was hanging around somewhere still though, I cautiously hoped. It was worth a try anyway.

I headed off along the forest track, the weather breezy but mostly bright apart from an occasional passing shower. Scanning the clear fell areas produced a nice Great Grey Shrike, which used a tall dead stump as a perch. Not too much else was about aside from commoner waterfall on Froylandsvatnet lake.

I returned towards the car park, and began to work out where I would go next. Looking across at a clear fell area next to the main road I thought I'd give it one last scan. A hundred metres away, blurring a little into the background was a shape in a tall snag. I put the bins up. There it was: a Hawk Owl. Nonchalant as you like, it sat there looking intently towards the ground.

I walked around the edge of the forest to get closer. It peered about, entirely unperturbed by my presence or the cars passing by on the road. I took plenty of snaps before it leaned forward, dropped down in a swift leap and then came back up to a lower perch on the same tree.
 

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The relief was palpable. I was worried that I was going to spend the whole weekend chasing around after the owl, but I'd seen one really well within two hours of touching down. I knew I could relax and enjoy things from now on.

It perched happily on the low branch for a while before darting off to another tree, looking like a big-headed accipiter as it went.
 

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I worked my way gradually closer - something it seemed entirely unconcerned about. Some owls only have one face, but Hawk Owls seem to have an immense variety. They can even do a face with the back of their head.
 

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Characterful isn't it. One of those occasions when the reality of the bird is even better than the expectation.

I stayed with the owl for over an hour before leaving it to its own devices and heading off. I could see it still sitting patiently as I passed by in the car.

I spent the rest of the day around the large shallow lake of Orrevatnet, an area that I'd visited on a previous trip to Stavanger two years ago. I began around the farmstead at Nese, where an Oriental Turtle Dove had been present for much of the winter. I didn't find that but there were still plenty of birds to see. Large numbers of geese were in the fields, mostly Greylags and White-fronted Geese but with smaller numbers of Barnacle Goose and Pink-footed Goose too. A Short-eared Owl quartered the marshes and a Grey Wagtail flew over. Along the road a short distance a ringtail Hen Harrier headed across towards the lake, presumably to roost. I finished the day at the hide along the south shore of the lake, where a couple of Whooper Swans were out on the water.
 

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Always nice to make a swift connection - your shots strengthen the impression of a bird I'd love to see.

Cheers
Mike
 
That's a cracking bird to get your best shots of, well worth the short trip in my opinion. Looking forward to the rest of the report if it's anything like the beginning!
 
Day Two: 18th March 2017

This was my only full day, and by and large the weather was kind with bright sunshine, pleasant temperatures and, at least until the afternoon, light winds. Things started out a bit differently at dawn as a passing snow shower cleared, leaving behind a thick dusting and low clouds.

I headed a short distance up into the hills to the east of Stavanger and the lake of Kleivadalsvatnet near Hommersåk. Some nice mixed woodland surrounds the lake and there are various tracks enabling easy investigation. Most of the birds were familiar tits and finches. A few Crossbills were heard calling and I soon had decent views of some busy Crested Tits. As I walked around the southern side of the lake there was a more interesting development when a Grey-headed Woodpecker started vigorously singing from the other side of the lake. Thinking I might have to walk the long way round to look for it, I was relieved when I could hear that it had moved much closer. Eventually I found it perched in a small, bare tree near the track, where it stopped for a minute or two to sing before disappearing deeper into the forest.

I then headed south, via a short detour to the southern end of the lake Kydlesvatnet. I was hoping for the reported Rough-legged Buzzard here. That didn't show up but across the lake an immature White-tailed Eagle was jostling with Hooded Crows and a Common Buzzard. Another Great Grey Shrike was perched on the telegraph lines over the rough marshland.

It was a fairly long drive through increasingly impressive and snowy landscapes to the village of Tonstad. Lying at the northern end of the thin lake Sirdalsvatnet, Tonstad is seemingly a good spot for a lot of forest specialities. As is often the case in the northern forests, those specialities proved elusive and the best I could manage in an hour and a half was a Willow Tit. A longer stay might have been more rewarding though.

Continuing on south, passing lakes and fjords and driving through long tunnels and over spectacular bridges, I arrived on the peninsula of Lista - the 'Lands End' of Norway and a well-known spot for migrants. It was much windier here and the exposed fields didn't immediately offer any more than a couple of passing (probably migrating) Stock Doves. A male Hen Harrier drifting by was more impressive.

I eventually found my way to the Slevdalsvann Nature Reserve near Lista Airport where a hide gave panoramic views out over the reedbeds, woods and fields. After a while spent scanning, I picked out a Rough-legged Buzzard gliding about to the east. Then another appeared a bit closer, hovering over the reeds.

Last stop was the lovely bay at Nordhasselvika. The sheltered waters on the west side and good light made for fine views of the attendant seafowl. This included five Great Northern Divers, two Slavonian Grebes, a more distant Red-necked Grebe and several Velvet Scoters and Long-tailed Ducks. A Lesser Black-backed Gull was presumably an early migrant and lots of bright looking littoralis Rock Pipits were rummaging through the seaweed.

I headed back north along the main road to Sandnes, not seeing many birds but, fairly inevitably, relishing the rugged mountains and silver lakes.
 

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Sounds like a great day Andrew, wonderful scenery and some cracking birds! Any landscape shots?

Chris

Thanks Chris. Not too many landscape shots, but here are a few.

1. Tonstad
2. Nordhasselvika, Lista
3. Orrevatnet (from the hide on the south side)
 

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Day Three: 19th March 2017

My last day (well, half day really) was the coldest with mostly grey skies, a bitter easterly wind and occasional sleet showers. Given that it been forecast to rain all day, this actually wasn't too disappointing though. I spent the morning in the Stavanger and Orrevatnet areas, so didn't travel too far.

First stop was the bridge at Harfsfjord. I soon found the wintering juvenile Iceland Gull here, which floated about under the bridge giving some good views. On the water were a decent selection of birds including one Red-necked Grebe, two Great Northern and one Red-throated Diver, Velvet Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks and Red-breasted Mergansers. Further to the north, the bay at Vistevika held some of the same species with the addition of five Slavonian Grebes.

I headed down the coast to the short peninsula at Reve. It was pretty exposed on the beach, where dozens of littoralis Rock Pipits were weaving around the strandline. A Red-necked Grebe flew south. Looking back over towards Orrevatnet I picked out four White-tailed Eagles, including a pair grappling with one another in flight.

Next stop was Vik, another headland just to south. I soon managed to pick out the wintering drake Surf Scoter a few hundred metres offshore. I'm used to picking these out from flocks of hundreds or even thousands of scoters in eastern Scotland but this was a much easier task of finding it amongst around a dozen other birds. The corvid flock behind the dunes included a Raven and at least one Carrion Crow (fairly scarce in Norway). There was also a 'white collared' Jackdaw.

I headed inland to the northern end of Orrevatnet at Nese. I looked again for the Oriental Turtle Dove but it was nowhere to be seen. It's a while since it's been reported, so perhaps it's gone now. Lots of geese were in the fields by the lake, with 340 White-fronts, 33 Pink-feet and 64 Barnacle Geese counted. A lovely group of five Smew, including one drake, were in the nearest bay of the lake. A fine adult White-tailed Eagle arrived on the scene, provoking a fair degree of consternation amongst the local crows and Cormorants. Eventually it was left alone to fish the lake. A distant Rough-legged Buzzard appeared across the back of the lake, perching on a fencepost at the edge of a field.

I finished at the hide on the south side of Orrevatnet. Ten Scaup were picked out on the water and a ringtail Hen Harrier floated across. A couple of Goosander and a drake Pintail were across the other side of the road on Ergavatnet.

And that was it. 91 species recorded in 48 hours, stunning landscapes, plenty of birds I don't see very often and one very special one I'd never seen before. After dropping the hire car off at Stavanger airport, less than four hours later I was back in my living room in Aberdeen, sipping a beer and watching the football. I should do this sort of thing more often.

Photos:
1. Iceland Gull
2&3. Eiders at Hafrsfjord, which came in very close as if they were expecing me to feed them. Quite odd from Eiders.
4. The keen-eyed should be able to pick out four species of goose here.
5. White-tailed Eagle at Orrevatnet, with followers.
 

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Thanks for for landscapes Andrew and a wonderful trip report! Never been to Scandanavia but this makes me want to go! Loving those Eider too! All in alla great job!

Chris
 
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