Smew

Smew

I finally caught up with a Smew that has been knocking around the Oslofjord all winter. The bird was in a small patch of open water by the Opera in the centre of Oslo. There seems to be some debate as to the sex of this bird but it appears to probably be a young male. There were many hundreds of Herring Gulls on the ice which is still completely covering the inner fjord but I couldn't locate the Glaucous Gull.
A quick drive around Maridalen revealed that spring is springing with drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers and singing Great Tits and Bullfinches despite the thermometer still showing minus temperatures. In the last couple of the days the first Wood Pigeons have been reported which are the first spring migrants and there have even been a couple of Skylarks reported migrating over Oslo.

A female Great Spotted Woodpecker posed for a photo (heavily cropped).