Purple Sandpiper at Tungeneset

Went out on a hunch to Tungenes Fyr, Randaberg this morning. Wader season should be starting soon, why not go check out some places near to home. So far it's proven that season's starting late this year ... Lista and other sites closer hasn't revealed much in terms of waders.

So off I went equipped with the scope set up and the trusty 400/5.6. And I wasn't dissappointed. After almost a year in Norway, I finally saw my Purple Sandpiper.

From Wikipedia,

"Adults have short yellow legs and a medium thin dark bill with a yellow base. The body is dark on top with a slight purplish gloss and mainly white underneath. The breast is smeared with grey and the rump is black. They measure 20–22 cm (7.9–8.7 in) in length and 42–46 cm (17–18 in) across the wings, and weight is from 50–105 g (1.8–3.7 oz).^[2]

Their breeding habitat is the northern tundra on Arctic islands in Canada and coastal areas in Greenland and northwestern Europe. They nest on the ground either elevated on rocks or in lower damp location. The males makes several scrapes; the female choose one and lays 3 or 4 eggs. The male takes the major responsibility for incubation and tends the chicks. The young feed themselves."

Purple Sandpiper / Fjaereplytt / Calidris maritima

The nice part was that these birds weren't as easily spooked as some of the other waders I've observed, they were tolerating my presence long enough to make some proper shots of them. I actually followed a flock as it foraged along the rocky shores passed the lighthouse. I was glad that when they finally all took off, it was the dog that scared them away. It was an exhilarating morning to say the least.

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)

Local patch Hafrsfjord

Getting to know your local patch and regular birding in and around local patch is a first step towards many fulfilling outings with very low investment in money and time. Many a times you'd be able to simply zip by that favorite spot  to scan the horizons for your quarry and zip off to work with a big smile on your face having seen a feathered friend.

I did quite a lot of that when I was living in Sarawak, Borneo. An early day would see me on the beach watching a Chinese Egret, Malaysian Plover or waders sporting summer colors (in the correct season) from as early as 6:30am; I'd be at my desk just as the tropical sun starts to warm up by 8:00am. It makes for an enjoyable day at work too.

The Hafrsjord birding circuit, with mange mange takk to Neil, Inger and Hera (Map from www.visitnorway.com, I added the red squares).

Having arrived in Norway last May, my birding clock has been somewhat skewed and requiring adjustment. New place, different seasons and timings had me birdwatched much less than before. Therefore it was with great joy when a local birding couple Neil and Inger (and their daughter, Hera) offered to show me around Hafrsfjord, a location 10mins drive from the house. Though I've been going there before several time, nothing beats personal insights. Everyplace seems a great place to birdwatch being a new birder here, however knowing a proper place to park can make or break that well-planned outing.

Northern Pintail at Sommevagen, apparently it's been around for the past few years. High on the list of lookouts of local birders are American Teal and American Widgeon.

One Sunday morning, we met at Mollebukta near Three Swords and set off on our way for my birdwatching orientation around Hafrsfjord. We covered all the great places where interesting records have been made by local birders. Most importantly a detailed low-down on what species to expect, which roads to take, and where to park without raising the ire of farmers and local residents. There's a fine line dividing birders and farmers here in Norway, I'm not going to be the person crossing it at this early stage of Norway birding.

Velvet Scoter which can be seen from many of the stops, they tend to be more relaxed towards the end of the day and can be seen frolicking close to shore just before sunset.

Sommevagen has ducks, waders and waterbirds on offer; this was the first site I noticed as I was passing the airport on the way to the hotel when I visited Stavanger for the first time in my life for that job interview. The rest they say is "Birding! Fuglekikker!"

Within less that 4 hours of a sunny Sunday, we stopped by Stokkavatnet (Water Rail was sighted here in recent times), Revsheim (we spotted Velvet Scoter, Northern Teal, Northern Pintail, Great Cormorant, Red-breasted Merganser, waterbirds), Pighella (nesting Arctic Tern last year), Smavagen (Shelduck and waders), Kolnes North (waders), Kolnes South (waders), Sommevagen (Kitiwake, waders, ducks), Sornesvagen (nesting European Nuthatch, divers, cormorants) and last but not least Granebukta (gulls, waders, waterbirds). All these places have convenient parking areas with the exception of Kolnes which requires some judicious placement of the vehicle along the verge to avoid being trampled upon by farm equipment.

Many many thanks ("Mange, mange takk" in Norwegian) to Neil, Inger and Hera for sharing their favorite spot. Being a new birder to this local patch, it was a tremendous help. With summer fast approaching and birding season kicking into high gear it was also most timely!

Sommevagen, Hafrsfjord is an important wintering site for Scaup in Norway.

One week at Lista Fyr, Lista, Vest-Agder

This trip has been on the cards since late last year. Lista is an important stopover within the Jaeren birding circuit and makes up  one of several must go birding sites in Norway. Between April to November the coast of Jaeren offers many ticks being on the migration route, closest landmass between the UK and the continent. Waterbirds, ducks, passerines, seabirds, waders, raptors ... Lista has got it all.

Lista Fuglestasjon is located on the grounds of the lighthouse, many years of ringing and recording has taken place at this site. They've got records dating back to 1987 if not earlier.

We planned the trip such that it coincides with the spring migration, this year as it turned out Spring was a bit late. When we arrived on the grounds to pick up our keys to the apartment and lighthouse, the fields were still frozen. There was still snow on the compound.

The one week stay combined birdwatching for the family, low light photography as well as some country walking and sightseeing. The kids enjoyed running around the compound, I the birdwatching.

Shelduck, also my first on this trip. It was high on the list of ducks that I wanted to see here.

Skylarks were the most obvious passerines in the open fields at Lista. It's was still too early for the others.

A likely scene at Lista over the years. We saw migrating geese only towards the end of our week, when in started to get warmer and the winds blowing in the northerly direction.

Some Mallards settling in for the evening. 

Birders are the second common sight here after the birds.

White-tailed Eagle, new bird for me, sighted three at different locations during the trip.

The rocky coast, part of the 100km  birding coastline. Over the horizon is the town of Borhaug where the Natur og Fritid shop is located. It has a big collection of birds and nature books on sale.

The Lista Fyr.

Although the bird activity level has not peaked during our stay, many birds made it to my list of firsts. Woodcock, Gannet, European Shag, Skylark, Shelduck, White-tailed Eagle, Black-backed Seagull were among them. This was a recce trip for the many more visits planned to the area. It was a nice quiet orientation week to an important birding destination in Norway.

Nazeri Abghani/Apr 2013

Sandness Havn No. 2

This time I managed to drag both of the kiddoes out for a spot of birdwatching at Sandness Havn. Aisya took along her breadcrumbs to feed the hungry ducks while Ali decided to bring along his PnS digital camera which has probably seen the light of day twice if not less.

The three of us of course each has completely different agenda today : Aisya to escape Mommy's chore day, Ali to make up the MacD lunch that he missed last week and Daddy to get better capture of the Goldeneye. Sometime in the unexpectedly cold minus 3 degree C temperatures, we managed to overlap our different agendas with some family birdwatching ... close-up views of the basking (not sure if basking qualifies here, though it was sunny, it's -3 deg C!) cormorant, dashing views of the ducks, coots and swans.

Not so good video quality of the Goldeneye on FB.

 Greater Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) / Storskarv

Greater Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) / Storskarv

Videograb of the Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) / Kvinand

Sandness Havn at minus 3 deg C.

Nazeri Abghani/Mar 2013.

Scaup at Stavanger Sentrum

While waiting for the start of "Tax in Norway" presentation at the Rosenkilden, we were loitering near the edge of the water sipping in the glow of dusk Wednesday evening. There were several swans and a couple of Mallards in the water.

Just by the side of the concrete embankment, another duck was busy foraging the surface of the water. Looks larger than a female Tufted Duck, it was going about it's business without any cares of the folks passing by or the of the swans milling about.

A new duck for me, Scaup, Aythya marila. Of course with many of such a thing, I did not carry a camera with me, at not one suitable of such bird pictures I am used to. Here's the Scaup on the HTC android ...

Scaup (Aythya marila) looking for dinner.

 

 

Nazeri Abghani/Mar2013



Lazy birding at Sandness Havn

This Sunday, I managed to convinced my daughter to go birding with me. The only catch : we have to go feed the ducks at Breavatnet, take the train down to Sandness and then a Mac Donald's lunch ... well, three catches. A small price to pay to spend a couple of hours with my smallest favourite birder.

We went feeding the birdies at Breavatnet right about 1100 hrs. Other than the regular long haired senior hippy hand feeding pigeons, seagulls and ducks, we were about the only other humans with breadcrumbs. Aisya picked and chose who got them. The Tufted Duck (must be around 50 of them in the lakes) were aggressively fighting with one another as well as the Common Coot (they made the loudest noise second only to the gulls).

Mallard, Tufted Duck and Common Coot in the same frame.

We finished up the bag of stale bread, which otherwise would end up as next weekend's bread pudding, in record time.

We quickly headed out to Sandness via the lokaltog and arrived Sandness Sentrum 12 minutes later, NOK90 for my return tickets while Aisya travelled free ... convenient is an understatement.

While driving around the area earlier last Friday, we spotted quite a number of out feathered friends gathered at the havn and have decided then for a revisit. Though today there weren't as many of them swimming around (as is always when you actually planned things), we spotted quite a few of our favourites : Muted Swan, Tufted Duck, Common Eider, Great Cormorant, Goldeneye, Common Coot, Mallard and Crested Grebe. Aisya spent a big portion of her time communing with one swan which decided to preen close to us on land.

Greater Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) / Storskarv drying up.

Common Eider (Somateria mollissima)/Aerfugl

Crested Grebe (Podyceps cristatus)/ Toppdykker

We picked a perfect spot for making videos of the birds around us right at the wooden landing by the harbour, and collected decent footage of the birds using the Leica and Sony-SLT33 setup. There were people passing by around us but they all kept a respectable distance ... they left us in peace!

My not so small anymore baby birder!

Nazeri Abghani/Mar2013.