Fornebu

I gave Fornebu a chance to give me a scarce migrant today but yet again I was to be disappointed. There were 9 Chiffchaffs and based on my recent statistics then there should rightly have been at least three Yellow-browed Warblers amongst them but the yellow-brows obviously hadn’t been told. Fornebu was very quiet with very few insect eaters left. There has also been a lot of earth moving activity in the last couple of weeks and two large areas of waste ground have now been flattened and all vegetation removed – there will soon be very few good areas left here.

The fjord had a bit to offer. Winds are from the south and are forecast to strengthen during the night which might mean something interesting turns up tomorrow morning. Today I had 5 Guillemots flying around, 4 Common Terns (again all juveniles) and best of all an adult male Long-tailed Duck. Over the last few winters there has been a regular group of L-t Ducks in the inner Oslofjord so it will be interesting to see if this bird stays to overwinter or is just passing through.

Male Long-tailed Duck (havelle) still in mostly summer plumage

 

here with one of the pale young Herring Gulls (gråmåke) that we get around Oslo

the bird was feeding amongst a flock of Eiders (ærfugl) and with a single Guillemot (lomvi)

I had a couple of Blackcaps (munk) today

a skulky Chiffchaff (gransanger)

not often that one sees colour ringed Great Black-backed Gulls around Oslo as they are not as easy to mug as the other bread eating tamer gulls. This individual (JH584) was ringed as a nestling (easier to catch) on 28 June 2011 within sight of where I saw it today making it a 5cy bird or 4th winter bird. I am surprised that there are no signs of immaturity left in the plumage. This bird has been seen in Holland both summer and winter from October 2011 until January 2015 with the only other Norwegian sighting in April this year at the same sight where I saw it today so it may well have attempted to breed this year back in its natal colony.

the Little Grebe (dvergdykker) is still in Storøykilen and has now attained winter plumage