Simon Rix

It might be a grainy picture but geese nerds will like it: 5 Taiga Beans from the Scottish wintering population at their regular staging site near Oslo but also, and this is where it gets fun, a Tundra Bean on the right and a single Pink-foot. More here: oslobirder.blogspot.com

@Mesoy640 Although the bobbing may help with dislodging food items I have seen them bobbing many times when they are clearly not feeding. The theory that makes most sense to me is that they are signalling to potential predators that they are fit and healthy and ready to fly off if attacked

@si_rix Why is it bobbing like that?

It seems the internet loves a bouncing bird so here is another Jack Snipe taken yesterday in Oslo. After 7 very cold weeks the forecast says we will soon have temperatures above zero and rain so it looks like this bird has done well and survived a Norwegian winter.

The sun is finally high enough to illuminate the Hazel Grouse’s favourite trees and this male yesterday was a joy to watch as it both sang and ate snow from a branch high up in alder tree. Oslo

Three-toed Woodpeckers often show REALLY well once you have first found them. Problem is that when they aren’t drumming (which they’ve yet to start with) then they can also be really difficult to find. I saw this bird today three hours after it was first found on exactly the same

Oslo is experiencing it's coldest period for decades with temperatures above zero on only 4 days since 1 Jan. It is therefore surprising that Jack Snipe are still going strong with up to 4 in the area I watch and they are roosting in the day so clearly find enough food at night.

@GibsonTomgibo Numbers & breeding areas change wildly between years with Hawk Owl being nomadic over the whole of fenno scandinavia - last year quite a few bred in southern Norway which had an OK rodent year. Tengmalm’s and GGO are far less nomadic and just don’t breed or even sing in bad years

@si_rix I didn't even try for Hawk Owls on a trip to Lapland in the summer last year as I was told there was only a single known breeding pair in all of Finland

Sadly it doesn’t look like the forecast top year for rodents and therefore owls is occuring and a nocturnal trip yesterday gave just 1 singing Tengmalm’s on a route which produced 11 a year ago. This Pygmy 🦉 on the patch today was quite literally only a small compensation. Oslo

A long weekend in Tromsø featured Northern Lights, lots of snow, reindeer racing and birds. Only 25 species of which a Redwing was probably the rarest (for the time of the year) but for me King Eiders and an adult Iceland Gull were the highlights and both feature in this video

This female Black Woodpecker was far too busy hacking away at a dead spruce tree to be bothered about me. Note how it knocks off a branch and then extracts a small larve with its tongue. Oslo 5.2.26

Another bouncing Jack Snipe video. Taken remotely this one also shows how the bird reacts to me making myself visible as I walk up to the camera. Note how it flattens its body against the water and freezes in the confident belief that it will not be seen.

@CliveMcKay1 Yes

@si_rix feeding on alder catkins?

I do, sometimes, look at birds other than Jack Snipe or owls 😉. The sight of these Hazel Grouse (male first & then female) kept me going on an otherwise freezing and pretty much birdless walk in Oslo’s forests. It is fascinating to watch such large birds on such thin branches.

@pablohugelist Give me three and a half months😊

@si_rix Some Great Snipe would be nice 😃

27 seconds of a Jack Snipes life. A 360 degree bounce for no apparent reason other than it can? Or perhaps this allows it to check for foes from any angle whilst also telling anything that is looking that it is alert and ready to flee should it be attacked? Oslo Jan 26

It is of course a Jack Snipe

and was clearly not feeding as it promptly stuck its bill under its wing (the other explanation for bobbing is that it helps disturb food items). Maybe the bouncing has different purposes in different situations though. Oslo 21.1.26 2/2

I have read various explanations for why snipe and woodcock bob/bounce. The one that best corresponds with my own observations is that it is to signal to potentials foes that it is alert and has the energy to escape. This bird was relaxing after I discovered it and 1/2

Jack Snipe in Oslo. When it freezes the few remaining Jack Snipe seek refuge on the equally few running streams. Their plumage is perfect camouflage when they are in a grassy marsh but on a stony stream not so good. Never the less the bird freezes and hopes it hasn't been seen.

More Jack Snipe. This 8x speed video is from snippets taken over 35 minutes. It very slowly relaxed after I moved out of view but I believe the camera & tripod still affected its behaviour as it didn’t feed. At the end it freezes again as I return to the camera. Note also the 🦆