• Home
    • About >
      • eBird gallery
  • Blog
  • Galleries
    • Birds (non passerines) >
      • Swans, geese and ducks
      • Gamefowl
      • Loons
      • Grebes
      • Tubenoses
      • Storks, herons, cormorants, gannets and darters
      • Hawks and eagles
      • Falcons
      • Rails and cranes
      • Shorebirds
      • Skuas >
        • Feature: Searching for skuas
      • Gulls >
        • Feature: Baltic Gulls passing western Norway
      • Terns
      • Auks
      • Pigeons and doves
      • Owls
      • Swifts
      • Bee-eaters and rollers
      • Woodpeckers
    • Birds (passerines) >
      • Larks
      • Swallows
      • Pipits and wagtails
      • Waxwing and Wren
      • Accentors
      • Thrushes
      • Warblers
      • Flycatchers
      • Tits & allies
      • Shrikes
      • Crows and jays
      • Starlings
      • Old World babblers
      • True sparrows
      • Finches
      • Buntings
    • Other vertebrates >
      • Mammals
      • Lizards
    • Insects >
      • Moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) >
        • Leps
      • Dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata)
      • Flies (Diptera)
      • Beetles (Coleoptera)
      • True bugs (Hemiptera)
      • Shield Bugs (Heteroptera)
      • Leaf Hoppers (Homoptera)
      • Sawflies, wasps, bees and ants (Hymenoptera)
      • Scorpionflies (Mecoptera)
      • Grasshoppers and relatives (Orthoptera)
      • Lacewings and relatives (Neuroptera)
    • Other bugs >
      • Spiders and allies
      • Snails and slugs
  • Birdsounds
  • Garden birds
  • Microbigyear
    • Species list
    • Background
    • Pictures
    • Flickr
  • Travel
    • Malawi
    • Arctic Norway
    • Gambia
    • Lithuania and Poland
    • Morocco
    • Spain (Extremadura)
    • Thailand
    • Tibet
    • Happy Island, China
Nature photography by Frode Falkenberg

Pea-throated Bramblings

23/2/2022

Comments

 
Through my home-office window I have been able to study some of the hundreds of Bramblings that have visited my feeder this winter. There is lots of variation in the plumage, but usually only when it comes to the abrasion of head feathers; the more abraded, the more black they (males) appear. 
However, some very few males (have not seen this in females) have so-called pea-throats. This means that they have a white throat with variable distribution. Most only show a pea-sized spot below the bill, and one male also showed an all white throat patch, streaching from the bill to the chest (see below).
Picture
This striking first winter male Brambling showed the largest white throat-patch I've seen. Bergen, Vestland, Norway 30 January 2022.
Picture
Male Brambling with a "regular" pea-throat. Bergen, Vestland, Norway 2 February 2022.
Picture
First-winter male Brambling with an ordinary and all orange-buff throat. Bergen, Vestland, Norway 20 January 2022.
Comments

Trumpeter Finch near Bergen!

19/6/2017

Comments

 
After a few hours of what I suppose was both heavy and frustrating work in the field, fellow bird recorder Eirik Nydal Adolfsen managed to find and identify the first Trumpeter Finch in Hordaland county. This was also only the second record in Norway, following a long-staying bird in Østfold county from late June until late September 2013.
Trumpeter Finch
Trumpeter Finch Bucanetes githagineus at Breivik in Øygarden (western Norway) June 2017. The second record in Norway.
Here's my timeline from the first message about the bird, until...
12:00 Starting up a Skype-meeting on a work issue.
12:07 Getting a call from Eirik (the finder), but I am occupied in the meeting.
13:40 Trumpeter Finch published on the local messaging system Band.
13:41 Trying to call Eirik the finder, but his phone is shut off or batteries are dead.
13:42 Frustration. Having the White-winged Lark dip from 2015 fresh in mind.
14:30 No updates on the bird.
​14:50 Twitchers are finally on their way, but a car accident is blocking the road and they are delayed.
15:30 Still no updates on the bird.
16:00 I'm coaching the Minde boys 2008 in soaking weather. Only five participants. Should have been cancelled.
17:00 Phone check after training. No updates on the bird.
17:10 Shopping dinner on our way back from the football training.
17:15 More birders have arrived at the site, but no sign of the star of the game.
17:20 Making pasta bolognese in 15 minutes. The pasta became pretty al-dente today...
17:30 Gosh. Still no updates on the bird.
18:00 A kind neighbour accepted a visit from two kids that I was supposed to handle this evening.
18:15 Finally in the car on my way to Øygarden - six hours after the first notification.
18:30 Reports from the people in the field: the bird has not been seen for several hours.
19:05 A White-tailed Eagle pass my car while driving through Rong. Not slowing down.
19:30 Arriving the site.
19:31 The bird seen briefly by a couple of birders after several hours of searching. it flew away... 
19:43 After 15 minutes of oppressed worries we finally managed to find the bird. It was feeding on the ground together with Greenfinches, Linnets and Wheatears on a small patch of calcareous sand with sparse vegetation.
The white patch behind the birder was a favorite spot for the bird.
Happy twitchers getting great views of the Trumpeter Finch minutes after its rediscovery.
Comments

Thrush Nightingale

29/5/2017

Comments

 
The third ever Thrush Nightingale Luscinia luscinia for Hordaland county was found a few days ago in Austrheim municipality, western Norway. Thrush Nightingales are mainly distributed in southeastern Norway, and are obviously concidered rarities in western Norway. The sound below was recorded with a handheld SLR.
Comments

Kasungu National Park

23/2/2017

Comments

 
The last area in our project (Ntchisi and Dzalaynyama arethe two others) is the IBA Kasungu National Park. Wednesday 22nd. was used for travel and a few community visits.
Kasungu is famous for its Elephants, and the population in Kasungu counted about 2000 animals 20 years ago. Poaching has decimated the numbers a lot, and now there are only about 70 left. Poaching is still a major issue in Kasungu, both from the Malawian and Zambian side of the border.
Picture
African Pied Wagtail
Motacilla aguimp
​One of the communities had previously been bothered by Elephants. Elephants were both a nuisance for people’s crops, but were also a hazard to the people themselves. This community lives on the border of the park, but has been innovative in their work to lessen the Elephant issue. By mounting bee-hives in the trees every tenth meter along the park-border, combined with a thick wire between them, thay actually managed to “stop” the large mammals from entering their village. Elephans are not very fond of bees, and avoid them as far as possible. When an Elephant walks into the line, the bee-hives will be disturbed. The bees wil fly out and find the intruder. Elephants then pull back, and return to the reserve. ​
This community produce quite a bit of honey because of this effort, making them able to earn some money. The area covered with hives and metal lines was a few kilometers, but the leader of the community hoped for assistance to prolong this to cover a larger area.
PictureWoodlands and wetlands in a fine combination inside the Kasungu National Park.
About 50 bird species were recorded during a three hour walk in the morning.

Just before sunset we arrived at the nights’ accommodation, the Lifupa forest lodge inside the National park. A fantastic place close to a dammed part of the river passing by. A handful Hippos were bathing on the shore, and hundreds of Swallows and Swifts were feeding above the surface. The soundscape during the night was totally awesome, and there were a dozen nice moths to look at as well.
Before the sun broke the following morning we went for a hike around the lake to do some birdwatching. Joined by an armed forest ranger we had a veru nice walk. It was actually the best hours of birdwatching on my Malawi trip. More than 30 new bird species for the trip was registered, with Dickinson's Kestrel, Levaillant's Cuckoo, Purple-crested Turaco and Amethyst Sunbird​ as the highlights.
Long-tailed Paradise-Whydah
African Pied Wagtail
Pied Crow
Black-headed Heron
Hippopotamus
Grey Go-away-bird
Pin-tailed Whydah
Dickinson's Kestrel
Ring-necked Dove
Puku
During the day we did some more community visits before heading back to Lilongwe.  In the evening we had a great goodbye-dinner at a Chinese restaurant downtown. Tomorrow I am off to Norway after a visit to the Royal Norwegian Embassy. Can’t wait to visit Malawi again.
Comments

Ntchisi forest reserve

21/2/2017

Comments

 
We left Lilongwe early in the morning yesterday, to visit the second IBA we run the project. Communities surrounding the Ntchisi forest reserve. Ntchisi hold the only rainforest in Malawi, but the area has experienced hard pressure from the livelihoods nearby for years. Today the forest reserve is protected, and a group of local rangers patrol the forest on a daily basis. Locals communities are allowed to collect firewood from the forest, but only dry dead wood. Earlier poaching was a problem, but today it is not. Anyway, there aren’t many large mammals to hunt anymore.
Picture
Ntchisi forest reserve seen in the background. The reserve is surrounded by a deforested landscape used for agriculture.
Visiting a handful of communities today was great. Local leaders and village people greeted us warmly as elsewhere on out trip. Their efforts in planting trees for community forests were good, and they seemed to have a lot of focus on using the available resouces sustainably. The awareness of the importance of woodlands like the Nitchisi forest did also seem good.
Picture
Crowned Hornbill Tockus alboterminatus
Picture
The Noctuid moth Crameria amabilis
We spent the night at the Ntchisi forest lodge. A beautiful place close to the border of the rainforest. The view from the lodge was spectacular, with Lake Malawi towards the east and the mountains of Mozambique making out the lake's background. Today we managed to do a three-hour hike in the area, spotting about 30 bird species. My personal highlights were a party of Cabanis's Bunting and the enchanting Crowned Horbills. The latter seemed to be quite common in the area. Judging by all the sounds in the forest, many birds were unfortunately not identified. I suppose a local bird guide would have been good to improve the species list. We also got great views of a dozen Blue (Diademed) Monkeys inside the rainforest – the first for the trip.
Comments
<<Previous

    Recent photos

    Blog archives

    February 2022
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    March 2010
    October 2009
    February 2008
    April 2007
    October 2006
    September 2006
    June 2006
    October 2005
    June 2005
    April 2005
    October 2004
    September 2004
    May 2004
    March 2004
    November 2003
    October 2003
    September 2003
    April 2003
    March 2003
    November 2002
    July 2002
    June 2002
    May 2002
    April 2002
    December 2001
    November 2001
    October 2001
    September 2001
    November 1999

    RSS Feed

Bird Galleries

Non passerines
​Passerines

Animal galleries

Mammals
Lizards

Spineless galleries

Moths and butterflies
​
Damselflies and dragonflies
Spiders and allies
​Snails and slugs
Flies
Beetles

Social

contact

All content on this site © Frode Falkenberg. ​Go to the contact form for comments or if you want to use material from the site.