Ikea birding

Yet another trip to Ikea yesterday (my fourth in as many days) gave me an excuse to drop into Fornebu on my way to the store and Maridalen on my way back. I was especially hoping to find some migrant Bluethroats (blåstrupe) which can often be found at Fornebu in the autumn but as I noted at Årnestangen it is still clearly too early for passerine migration and I will probably have to wait 10 days or so before these beauties arrive. Indeed there were still many signs of breeding from the local birds. A pair of Icterine Warblers (gulsanger) I stumbled across were very angry by my presence and gave me my best ever views of this species as they called angrily in my direction – I assume they had fledged young close by in a bush. In the reedbed at Storøykilen a very tatty Reed Warbler (rørsanger) was carrying an excrement “package” away from a nest whilst close by a fresh juvenile was feeding and a couple of Marsh Warblers (myrsanger) on the edge of the reedbed looked to be fresh juveniles. All three of these warbler species responded exceptionally well to “pishing”.

In Maridalen I had an adult male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) with a juvenile in close attendance which I take as evidence that they did breed in the valley this year. When breeding they can make do with quite small areas so it is not surprising that they were not discovered whilst breeding.

Icterine Warbler (gulsanger)

note how the head shape can change depending on the attitude of the bird

note the white outer tail feathers which are a useful feature for identifying a mystery warbler to the right family group - in this case hippolais

the pale wing panel is a good ID feature for Icterine

Marsh Warbler (myrsanger) which can also have lighter coloured outer tail feathers which help separate from other acrsocephalus warblers but complicate things with regard hippolais

Reed Warbler (rørsanger) - note the darker browner tones compared to the more olice Marsh Warbler

Wheatears (steinskvett) were common at Fornebu where they breed and there were a number of youngsters. This is a youngster I believe although how to separate from an adult female that has moulted?

an adult male Wheatear that is well on the way with its post breeding moult

Goldfinch (stillits)

male Roe Deer

I assume this to be a young Roe Deer and it was busy feeding on berries