Great Grey Shrike in Maridalen

This weekend I was away with Jr for a football tournament in Langesund in Telemark so birding was not on the cards although I did note a number of Waxwings and did threaten a car load of girls that we would twitch a Bee-eater on the way home (this bid was found near Stokke in Vestfold on Saturday and has proved very popular and photogenic and has seemingly filled a hole on many peoples lists).

Today I checked out the Oslo vibe. It is quite warm at the moment and in the morning there was no wind so it was once again a fantastic autumn day. There were a number of Bullfinches in Maridalen which were mostly heading west and there was frequent trumpet calls from them so it looks like the invasion of eastern birds is increasing. There are still numbers of Crossbills to be heard and I also had a pair on the church ruins at Kirkeby which I think intended to find minerals from the stones but my presence probably deterred them. Great Spotted Woodpeckers were also very noticeable with birds drumming and squabbling presumably as they mark out territories and I ahd four together on a telegraph pole. Highlight in Maridalen though was a Great Grey Shrike which has probably been present for a couple of weeks but had so far eluded me (I suspect that it covers a large area possibly not just confined to Maridalen). It showed well and its barred underparts showed it to be a 1cy bird.

With the windless conditions I also checked out the Oslofjord from Huk and had a few auks (4 Razorbills and 12 Guillemots) but very few seaducks and no divers or grebes.

This time of the year can turn up interesting birds especially after storms but the weather forecast is for very settled weather the next week so I don’t have much confidence that there will be too much to look forward to for a while.

 

Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) pair in Maridalen

they flew down onto the church ruins and seemed to have a desire to go further down maybe because there was a source of minerals?

Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in Maridalen

it had a lot of wires to choose from!

4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers (flaggspett) and a telegraph pole

Guillemot (lomvi)

the same Guillemot with the old lighthouse and now restaurant of Dyna Fyr in the background

1cy Razorbill (alke) with young Great Black-backed Gull (svartbak) and young Herring Gull (gråmåke)

the Razorbill was hunting a shoal of small fish which jumped out of the water when it dived. This in turn attracted a number of gulls including this adult Herring Gull