Berry Xmas!

Christmas came early for me during a short visit to Oslo last week.  I'm sure all of you have heard all about the unprecedented invasion of Pine Grosbeaks into southern Scandinavia this autumn, with record numbers reaching Denmark and Dutch birders especially expecting one or two overshoots.  There was a bumper crop of rowan berries in southern Norway, however, so the birds have stayed put.  I thus thought, if the birds won't come to me, then I'll go to them, so I headed out for a lightning visit and hired fellow expat bird-guide Simon Rix to take me straight to the birds.
He certainly knew how to keep things exciting, with his local flock dwindling to just five birds and him confidently predicting the berries would only last a few more days at the start of the week.  We started the day in the dark looking for a Great Grey Owl, which Simon had discovered a few days previously, but to no avail so we moved on to a nearby car park where a pair of Pine Grosbeaks fed happily right above us and gave us a sample of their various calls.  We then relocated to another fearless flock next to a petrol station which contained sixteeen birds, with passers by walking right underneath them.  Simon had obviously done his homework as at one point, the birds took off, but he knew exactly where they were heading and we soon found them again, all feeding in one tree.

Very pleased with my first and second encounters of these wonderful visitors from the far north, we then headed out of the slushy suburbs of Oslo into a winter wonderland looking for Three-toed Woodpecker, a species I've only ever seen briefly in Finland.  The forest was very quiet and the only birds we saw were a group of Parrot Crossbills right at the end of the walk, exhibiting their distinctive behaviour of picking off a spruce cone and flying up to another branch to feed on it.  Simon then dropped me back in Oslo where I had a short walk around the botanical gardens and enjoyed watching Brambling, Hawfinch, the very pale, northern race of Nuthatch and masses of Fieldfares before it got dark again all too quickly and it was time to head home.

Ode-vent Day 24

Although I didn't get to go back to the Amazon this year, I originally had the idea of an online advent calendar to showcase some of the pictures I'd taken there each summer.  For the final day, I thus have a small selection of just some of the odonata I have photographed in the rainforest over the years, starting with one of the helicopter damselflies.  These are extremely large, long-bodied damselflies which rotate their way slowly through the understory and never fail to impress the guests, no matter what they are interested in.  Happy holidays!

Ode-vent Day 23

The other seven (!) darters regularly occurring in Belgium all have orange to red abdomens and are notoriously difficult to tell apart.  The main features to concentrate on are the pterostigmata, markings on the thorax, leg colour, amount of black on the face, and both colour and shape of the abdomen.

Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum), is indeed one of our commonest dragonflies and can be found virtually anywhere.  It is, therefore, the default species when encountering any darter and so it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with it before trying to tackle the scarcer species.  Thankfully, the males have two distinct, greenish-yellow, diagonal stripes on the thorax, making identification realtively straightforward.  Note also the thin yellow lines extending along the predominantly black legs.

Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) has, as its latin name implies a much deeper, blood-red abdomen, which is also more waisted, ie narrowing at the base, than Common Darter.  Its thorax is plain brown, lacking the coloured stripes, and the legs are entirely black.

Red-veined Darter (Sympetrum fonscolombii) is a formerly Mediterranean species which has colonised Brussels within the past few years and is now just as common as Ruddy Darter.  Males are very brightly coloured with a pale pterostigma, yellow patches at the base of the wings and the tell-tale red venation along the leading edge of the wings.

Ode-vent Day 22

And so we come to the Sympetrum darters, the biggest, commonest and most confusing genus of dragonflies in Belgium!  Females and immatures are virtually impossible to tell apart without examining their genitalia, while even the males of some species can be difficult to identify.  Yet another species mainly found on heathlands, this Black Darter (Sympetrum danae) is the exception to the rule since it is the only species with a black body.

Ode-vent Day 21

A male Yellow-spotted Whiteface (Leucorrhinia pectoralis) is pretty unmistakable thanks to the big yellow spot from which it gets its name.  At the western edge of its range in Belgium and thus quite rare, I actually took this picture in Poland, where it is more widespread.

Ode-vent Day 20

The genus Leucorrhinia, or whitefaces, is represented by three species in Belgium, all of which have red-and-black bodies.  They generally prefer heathland and are thus extremely rare in Brussels.  This is Northern White-faced Darter (Leucorrhinia rubicunda), which is mainly found along the Dutch border.  It can be told from White-faced Darter by its larger size, broader and more heavily-spotted abdomen, and red instead of black pterostigma.

Ode-vent Day 19

Superficially similar to the Scarce Chaser, Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthertrum cancellatum) is actually in a different genus, of which three species occur in Belgium.  It can be told apart by its longer, more narrow body and emerald eyes.  Keeled Skimmer is yet another formerly scarce species which seems to be rapidly colonising Brussels, whilst Southern Skimmer is still a rarity found only in the very south of the country.