Still painfully quiet

My last day of guiding Ian Silvester and his wife Virginia and I had hoped that the bird gods would be on my side but unfortunately not. The weather gods were not particularly favourable towards me either with too much wind and bad light at the start of the day. We started at Fornebu where a few Stock Doves (skogdue) singing and visiting the nest boxes were the undoubted highlight alongside a photogenic singing Yellowhammer. The only consolation for me was that no others birders who visited Fornebu today had any better luck than we did.

The Botanic Gardens were next on the list and this normally reliable site for at least photographing a number of common species proved to be almost birdless with the feeders and berry trees attracting pretty much nothing.

By now the sun had come out so a repeat visit to Østensjøvannet and some new photo opportunities seemed like a good idea. This partly worked but with ever increasing areas of open water the interesting birds were also more distant. My first Oslo Goosander (laksand) of the year were the highlight.

 

Goosander pair

male Mallard (stokkand)