OSLO BIRDER: A distinct improvement

I braved Fornebu again today this time in sunny conditions and was rewarded by a nice selection of scarce birds. I don’t think any new birds had arrived and indeed most of the Yellow Wagtails had moved on but the warm weather and increased insect activity just made the birds more visible as they fed out in the open.

Pretty much the first bird I saw was a Wryneck which was sunning itself in the dead bush normally favoured by a Red-backed Shrike and later in the morning the Wryneck had been substituted and a shrike was in the same place. Tw of my all-time favourite birds in the same bush means the birding day has been a success. In the same small area were 3 Redstarts, 4 Spotted Flycatchers and 4 species of warblers so it felt very good and spurred me to check the rest of Fornebu with high hopes only to find out that the small area held nearly all the birds there were to find!

On the water in Storøykilen I saw the Little Grebe that has been present for a week or so and in the reeds I heard the Water Rails calling so tried to see them. I settled down in a good place and waited. I had two birds (possibly three) calling very close by but only managed to see one bird. It was actually quite close but the encounter was so brief that I just managed a blurred photo.

A short stop in Maridalen gave me just a single raptor but it was a new one for the autumn namely a Kestrel.

Wryneck (vendehals) with a curious Willow Warbler (løvsanger)

Wryneck

Red-backed Shrike (tornskate)

same shrike

Reed Warbler (rørsanger). note long primary projection and weak supercilium compared to the Blyth's Reed from Maridalen

my first migrant Chiffchaff (gransanger) of the autumn. Note the short primary projection compared with the Willow Warblers I have photo'ed recently. This bird also pumped its tail a lot which is a good Chiffchaff character and first drew my attention to it