Sunday 22 August 2010

Camp as a row of tents

Time for the family's second camping trip of the year and a chance for the first birding in a couple of weeks. Destination was Øyungen, a lake in Nordmarka just north of the city. Arriving in the evening it was very quite. A Black Throated Diver was on the lake and a few Swallows and House Martins were hawking insects but in the firest it was almost completely silent. Towards dusk a couple of Nutcrackers flew over and a Black Woodpecker called in the distance.
At night there was not a sound to be heard - no owls unfortunately. Waking early in the morning I was rewarded by an Osprey, 2 Grey Herons and singing Willow and Crested Tits in the forest. Overhead a Tree Pipit flew south but by 9am everything had gone quiet again.
Highlight of the trip was in fact not a bird but catching a medium sized perch.

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Little time for birding

Birding is taking a bit of a back seat at the moment as I'm back in gainful paid employment rather being able to bird at my leisure as I have been lucky enough to do over the last few months.
Despite not being out in the field it is difficult to escape the sings of autumn: in the garden I hear the gentle "hoet" call of Willow Warblers moving through, overhead Nutcrackers are a frequent sight as they search for hazelnuts in the gardens and Swifts and Fieldfares are starting to flock and move through in a purposeful manner.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Quiet August days

Back in Oslo I have been too busy to do any serious birding but a couple of trips into the forests of Nordmarka where we picked some very juicy blueberries revealed mixed feeding flocks of Tits containing Crested, Willow and Coal, Black Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatchers, Bullfinches and singing Crossbills.
This time of the year should be producing waders a plenty at Nordre Øyeren but unfortunately water levels are too high for much mud to be exposed and apparantly an adult and juvenile Peregrine have also taken up residence by the best area of mud resulting in very waders being brave enough to hang around!

Monday 2 August 2010

Oslo

We are back in Oslo now after 5 weeks holiday around norway. The last days around Bodø saw little in the way of birding with other activities taking precedence including some swimming in truly ice cold water. Whilst on a fishing come boat trip I twice saw a young Peregrine Falcon which whilst being nice to see was a disappointment as I know the area to have the even more impressive Gyr Falcon.

Back in Oslo I was woken by a calling Wryneck in the garden which I failed to see but did see an overflying Nutcracker (they descend on Oslo in late summer to feed in gardens with Hazel nuts being a favourite) and had a young Blackcap singing in the garden.

There is now very little bird song/call to hear and most birds are young ones. In the garden in addition to the Blackcap there are young Robins, Fieldfares and Wood Pigeons and overhead young House Martins are making lots of noise.