Bearded Tits

male Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis) at Fornebu today

A trip to Maridalen revealed that all the ducks and eagles had moved on (and not been replaced!). However there were good numbers of finches around. There are definitely Redpolls (gråsisik) and Bullfinches (dompap) on the move on top of crossbills (korsnebber) which started moving much earlier in the autumn.

At Fornebu I couldn’t locate the tristis again although there were a couple of Chiffchaffs (gransanger) hiding in the reeds one of which called like a normal bird and the other made one strange side and then was quiet and didn’t show itself again. The Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) on the other hand did show themselves. After hearing one just after I arrived it was another half an hour before I heard them again and eventually they showed well. I saw definitely two pairs but am quite sure there were more birds in the reedbed. Taking pictures through the reeds is a bit challenging but I got some OK shots although the ISO was quite high. The only breeding birds in Norway are at the Great Big Dump, Øra and many of these are ringed. That none of the birds I saw were ringed perhaps suggests a more distant origin from either Sweden or Denmark.

female Bearded Tit