Wing bars

The storms that hit Norway yesterday reached Oslo and even though it felt pretty windy here the winds were less than a third as strong as those that hit the south coast. I gave the fjord at Fornebu a try but there were no seabirds here and although the winds have continued today they are now from the north which is not conducive to producing seabirds in these parts.

I therefore visited the Botanical Gardens again today and eventually turned up three Two-barred Crossbills but they are far from as cooperative as they were last week. There are far fewer berries on their favourite tree and they appear to only drop in briefly here and to be feeding mostly in larches. It was 40 minutes before I found them (in the berry tree) but they quickly moved to a larch and moved again from there after just a few minutes. Every time they flew though they were vocal so it is just a 

case of having patience and ears open.

Five Chaffinches (bokfink) were a very good Oslo winter record but only three Hawfinches (kjernebiter) showed themselves today. A male Goshawk put up everything at one stage but did not have a successful hunt.

Closer to home some of the Collared Doves (tyrkerdue) have moved to within sight of the house and three were feeding in a garden just 100 m away. Another five were where I had them earlier in the week and I would guess that they have only very recently moved to the local area.

When it is cloudy at this time of the year it is very poor light for photography and gets dark in the afternoon around 3pm so one has to make the most of the middle of the day.

male and female Two-barred Crossbill

the male