All gone fruity

Whilst Norway’s small band of twitchers has been going bananas over the country's first record of Black-throated Accentor (svartstrupejernspurv) - I said thanks but no thanks to the offer of driving the 6+ hours each way on Saturday night - things have been quiet in Oslo. I have though been able to tick the bird virtually by watching this news report (some familiar faces to be seen).

After a week of excitement the Two-barred Crossbills seem to have moved on from the Botanical Gardens and there were generally fewer birds today although a flock of 150 Redpolls that dropped in and tried to drink from the small stream before being scared away by a cat looked interesting. I managed to get onto one very good Arctic candidate but didn’t see the rump before they all took off. Five Hawfinches (kjernebiter) and 2 Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb) were around and a couple of Chaffinches (bokfink) were an unusual December record for Oslo.

Closer to home I discovered a flock of 10 Collared Doves (trykerdue) in a place where I saw three birds a week ago. Collared Doves are declining in Norway and in Oslo are definitely a scarce bird away from a couple of regular localities. They are also quite loyal to small areas (individual gardens) so these birds may well have been here for a while (years?) although I would be shocked with myself if I have overlooked such obvious birds just 400 metres from where I write this.