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Nature photography by Frode Falkenberg

Arctic challenge

12/10/2011

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An early juvenile Glaucous Gull popped up in the city park of Bergen yesterday. Despite offering fresh bread, it was more interested in consuming a Feral Pigeon carcass. It was still hanging around the park today, and we managed to feed it with a little bit of bread. Why all this focus on bread? We want to catch it. Getting close enough to grab it with the hands, it has to like bread...

When Arctic gulls arrive the city park they may never have seen people, and of course have never been fed with bread. They need a little time to learn from the other gulls. We do also have the possibility of using a snare, so we will see what we find most appropriate when we try again tomorrow. See pictures of the bird eating the Feral Pigeon here.

Glaucous Gulls are scarce annual visitors in Hordaland county. They are rare in the city park of Bergen, where the last record was more than five years ago.
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First winter Glaucous Gull in Bergen, Norway 11 October 2011.
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Rare Owl and Starling

9/10/2011

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Just before midnight we tape-lured a Boreal Owl (Tengmalm's Owl) at Fedje, a small island on the coast of Western Norway. The bird was the first ever for Fedje, and also the first in Hordaland county in 2011.
Picture
Note the transparent nictitating membrane on the birds left eye. For predators such as owls this membrane is crucial for maintaining visibility while cleaning the eyes during hunting.
The species is a rarity in this region, but every third year or so they obviously wander a bit, and may show up at isolated places like Fedje. At Lista bird-observatory (Southwestern tip of Norway) lots of Boreal Owls have been ringed this autum. Some of these have been controlled at Revtangen bird-observatory (about 150 km. north of Lista) only days later, showing that birds migrate towards the North after they have met lands end at Lista.
I spent the weekend at Fedje together with colleagues in the board of the Norwegian Ornithological Society, Hordaland. Only Saturday (yesterday) produced weather suitable for birding. Today we experienced a gale and heavy rain. Yesterday was really fruitful despite the windy conditions. The long-staying adult Rose-colored Starling gave excellent views all day. What an incredible bird. The last rarity of the day was a first-winter male Red-breasted Flycatcher - not an annual visitor in the county.

Full species list (in Norwegian)
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    August 2024: Tracking Norwegian Black-tailed Godwits (NO) 
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    July 2023: Black-tailed Godwit fieldwork in Northern Norway (NO) 
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    June 2023: Great Snipe fieldwork at Hardangervidda, Southern Norway (NO)
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    November 2018: ​Fieldwork in three IBA's in Nepal (EN)

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