Local

With snow still falling and temperatures rising towards zero making the roads slippery I just kept it local this morning. Fornebu was a pretty dead place with less than ten species on offer but when they include six Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis), three Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis), 19 Twite (bergirisk) and a male Goshawk (hønsehauk) that isn’t a bad haul. The Beardies were in EXACTLY the same small area of reeds that I have seen them the previous two times. This small area doesn’t look that different to the surrounding reeds but the seed heads here must be particularly tasty. They exhibited the same behaviour as before and were difficult to find initially but one quiet call eventually gave them away and there they were just 5 metres away.

The Twite flock was feeding on seed heads amongst the snow but failed to contain ant redpolls this time.

In the garden the Tree Sparrow (pilfink) flock has increased to 11 and there were four Blackbirds (svarttrost) visiting the garden: two adult males and one 2cy male and a female. Surprisingly, the second calendar year bird was the king of the roost though and saw off the others if they approached the apples I have put out – he is obviously a testosterone full teenage bully. The nearby apple tree now has little fruit remaining on it and I only saw a single Fieldfare (gråtrost) when I checked it out.

Bearded Tits have a very cool way of climbing up reeds by holding onto two different stems. Note this male is ringed on its left leg

male and female Bearded Tit

Three males Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) with houses of Langodden on the other side of Koksa in the background

Long-tailed Tit - always a pleasure to see and hear

part of the flock of Twite (bergirisk)

Wrens (gjerdesmett) are so far fairly widespread this winter although could suffer if it remains cold for long. Note this bush is already bursting into bud