Østenjovannet ducks and Friday Maridalen videos

I didn't expect to be do any birding today but a report of Garganey (knekkand), Gadwall (snadderand) and Shoveler (skjeand) at Østensjøvannet tempted me into a flying visit there mid-afternoon. I failed to find the birds and was despondently making my way back to the car when I fortuitously bumped into Anders Simonsen who had also struggled to find them but from the right viewpoint they all were just visible and all remarkably in the same frame of view. Also here I heard my first Willow Warbler (løvsanger) of the year, had a Peregrine (vandrefalk) dash past and a Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) fly over. Amongst the gulls I noticed a 2nd summer Lesser Black-backed Gull (sildemåke) which is an unusual age class to see here. I fired off a couple of shots but only on looking at them at home did I realise how pale the mantle was and were it not for the yellow legs it could almost have been a Herring Gull (gråmåke) with Yellow-legged Gull (gulbeinmåke) being ruled out based on small size). This paleness indicates that it is of the British subspecies graellsii.

male Shoveler, female Shoveler, male Garganey, male Gadwall and female Gadwall. An exciting trio of ducks in Oslo

This 2nd summer (3 cy) Lesser Black-backed Gull has such a pale mantle that is should be of the British sub species graellsii

yellow les and grey mantle

A couple of videos from Friday in Maridalen. The first shows Black and Red-Throated Divers (storlom and smålom). After 40 seconds there is a sequence with two pairs of Red-throated Divers displaying.

The second video is of a male Parrot Crossbill extracting seeds from small pine cones.