Birding Saturday : Three Autumn Wader Migration Jaeren Hotspots

First Stop : Naerlandestranda

From Sola, it's probably less than 20 minutes drive to Naerlandestranda on the coastal Nordsjo road. If you are driving south follow the signboard and make a turn left at the Telekom Museum sign. You can drive the car all the way to the beach and park.

This place was hot in winter for ducks, and spring and autumn for the migrants. Upon arrival, I was startled by a feeding Peregrine Falcon ... where there is prey, obviously there'd be predator, the falcon probably the main species here on the coast of Jaeren. They are magnificent to see.

From the coast, Oystercatchers can be heard and barely seen slightly off the beach flying inches above the wave rushing to their wintering grounds further south.

On the beach itself, the quarry were  scattered on the sands frantically feeding, now and again nervously taking off in flight, returning again when feeling more secure. Amongst waders at the beach were Dunlin, Common Ringed Plover, Red Knot, Ruff, Bar-tailed Godwit and Redshank. Most are young birds with their fresh looking plumage, most adults have most likely taken up the journey south a couple of weeks earlier ... there still are a few straggler adults now and again.

Winter months could prove Naerlandestranda to be productive for ducks. Last winter I ticked Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Duck here, the come and play quite close to the shore. Other usual suspects like the Ruddy Shelduck and Common Eider are also common. One big advantage of the colder months is that there are less people on the beach. Walking is a big past time here, there's always someone with a dog walking someplace.

Easy parking spots (P) and potentially productive places to peek at the birds. Come Spring (May/Jun) and Autumn (Aug/Sep) these sites are teeming with migrating waders. Arctic Terns are commonly seen as are Ruddy Shelduck, Long-tailed Ducks, Velvet Scoter and others.

Peregrine Falcon.

The northern section of Naerlandestranda still to be explored.

Waders undecided whether to stay or to go, round and round they go.

Young Mallards.

There are waders and ducks in the them dar rocks. The southern section.

Waders on the water, just arrived from their nocturnal roost. Orrevatnet is not 10 minutes away by car. Reminded me of Kpg Masjid Kuala Baram and the marshes just beyond the beach (probably all oil palm plantation now!).

Second stop : Orrevatnet

This freshwater lake is an important roosting site for waders and waterbirds alike. Every year droves of birders flock to this lake together with the ducks, waterbirds, shorebirds that use this site as main habitat or stopping over point.

A bird friendly farmer understood the drive and has allocated some space for parking on his property. The situation is now more orderly than it has been in the past, birders can just drive up from the main road and park their car nicely by the roadside in the space provided and walk leisurely by the hedges to the edge of the lake.

The lake's surface coverage is huge, there many not-so accessible points surrounded by farms, private road and properties. Egravatnet is nearby as well which just across the parking space.

In the summer and winters months the lake is busy with both migrants and vagrants.

Parking (P) is coveniently allocated by the property owner right by the side on the road. Birding side is then only a mere 10 minutes walk away ... with full access to all that Orrevatnet has to offer, at all times of the year. Many birders near and far flock to this very important site for waterbirds in Norway.

Little Gull.

Hundreds of Ruff roosting ready to move south.

Mallards in the air.

Arctic Tern.

Northern Lapwing.

Third stop : Reve

This is the Reve site that Jaeren is famous for. Located not 15mins from Orrevatnet, the area is surrounded by flat farmlands, undulating dunes, rocky and sand shores as well as isolated stunted shrubs. You can birdwatch for passerines, raptors, waders all in the same day given the right season. Raptors preying on waders, ducks and geese flying across to reach Orrevatnet, seabirds cruising the North Sea and little passerines making the leap from across the seas.

The site is popular with local and international birders alike and you can be sure that there's always a birder at the side. Though access can be a cumbersome walk for those without parking permits, there's plenty to see in the fields along the path to the beach. Even the little scrap of forest at the start of the path has been very fruitful for many a birder during the right time of the year.

There's limited free parking along the Nordsjo route just pass Revtangen, then the beach is but a 10min walk west along a private gravel road a working field. Another option is to pay an annual NOK500 maintenance fee to the property owner and park by the beach, saves a birder the walk over. Depending on how much gear you have with you you have the option to park and walk from Revtangen or Orrestranda.

Ruff in non-breeding plummage.

Bar-tailed Godwit on the rocks.

Young Red Knot about to be on the rocks.

Little Stint ... my first!

Wader galore.

Red Knot.

Young Red Knot so close you can almost touch!

Young scientist trapping and ringing the waders.

Thank you Neil Robert Jones Friestad for a whole morning of awesome Jaeren birding.

Words and images by Nazeri Abghani/Norway/Aug 2013

Local patch : Coastal Jaeren

I consider myself to be extremely lucky to have been flung to Stavanger, Norway in the middle of Rogaland and the midst of birding haven that is Jaeren. Birding hotspots I only used to read about before can now be reached by less than a hour's leisurely driving.

Better still was to have made connection with a couple of avid local birders such as Neil and Inger Friestad, and their daughter Hera. Not long after we made contact at Sandness Havn while checking out ducks, we went on an introduction trip around local patch around Stavanger. Not long after that we covered coastal Jaeren. It was great fun zipping through the countryside getting the lowdown on the specialties of some of these hotspots with passionate birders having first hand knoowledge.

Ali and I drove from Stavanger one Saturday morning and within one hour we were birding with Neil, Inger and Hera. See map attached.

Jaeren coastal hotspots.

From the south we covered:

Sirevag 

Bruvatnet - several spots for waterbirds, wintering ducks and dipper

Kvassheim Fyr -waders and ducks

Madland -waders and waterbirds

Grodaland -passerines around a manmade lake in the woods

Obrestad - waterbirds and waders

Hatangen -waterbirds and waders

Soylandvatnet -wintering ducks, waterbirds, passerines in summer

Orrevatnet

Revtangen

Grudavatnet

Over the years many interesting sightings have been made in all these areas. Since most of the sites are located close to the coast, many waterbirds, seabirds, waders, raptors form the bulk of those sightings. Jaeren lies along the migration route North, with a point closest to UK landmass being Reve, migrant passerines are also a major feature. A ringing station managed and manned by the Stavanger Museum is located in Reve, just a few hundred meters from Revtangen.

With local patch covered (previous article) and now having completed introduction to coastal Jaeren, all that is left to do is find to find suitable weekends to stalk these sites for the birds. There are surely plenty of birds to go around all year, the trick around here is probably a day sunny enough the drag the gear out ... that there lies the challenge.

Sunset at Kvassheim, next to spot where ducks, and waders hangout.

Godwits by Hatangen, large fields dominated the landscape along the beach.

Goose in the fields next to Orrevatnet, the biggest bird magnet in the area.

Breeding curlew in the fallow fields of Obrestad, also by the coast.

Many thanks to Neil, Inger and Hera to have taken the trouble to show us around their patch, as well a Saturday moning's crash course on birding in Jaeren.

Nazer Abghani/Jul2013 (belated write up)

Dunlin to nought at Revtangen

I was informed by a fellow wader fanatic that there might still be waders lurking around on the beaches of Jaeren this late in the season. He's located further north and has been posting rather to die for shots of Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, Arctic Snipe and what not.

It didn't take much nudging to get me out of the door Saturday morning hours before sunrise, dragging the gear and kids along with me in single digit temperatures with high hopes of ticking a Purple Sandpiper. Against my own gut feeling of course as usual (maybe my smaller-used to be big gut wasn't as clairvoyant as it used to be). It was still capable as I was to find out (or it wasn't that small afterall)!

There were waves and waves of cormorant making a flyby from the north heading south, some makinga detour to Orrevatnet. There were flocks of passerines. They were many seagulls. There were several Common Eider feeding at their usual favorite patch by the rocks. THERE WAS NO WADERS! NOT A SINGLE ONE $%@&*! They've all left for warmer climes. Someone ticked an Arctic Snipe just two weeks ago, clearly I'm just way too late in the season.

Cormorants making a flyby, several waves passed by above us that morning.

Dejected at such poor showing and lack of good judgement on my part, I was very glad the kids were around. Together we spent the next 2 hours making little pagodas with glacier-wave-rounded rocks in the shade of the bluff braving windy conditions in absolutely single digit temperatures.

Still dejected when we got home, and decided to shift my attention to the birds that stick around ... our friendly neighbourhood fellas instead. At least the lenses had something to look at after the dissapointing show in the morning.

Chaffinch.

Chaffinch (female).

Brambling.

Goldcrest.

Great Tit.

Blue Tit

European Robin.

Great Tit waiting for it's turn at dinner.

The day didn't turn out so bad afterall, I may have just to wait till spring to see the Purple Sandpiper but fret not, these backyard fellas above will keep me occupied all winter long. I heard a Chinese Pheasant calling just this morning ... early!

PS/Wader photogs should date tag their pictures of seasonal migrating birds.