Leif

Today I met up with Stig Helge to try to show him the Kingfisher and Beardies at Fornebu. Temperatures were above zero overnight and there was some wind so there was less ice but the Kingfisher was once again not to be seen and has maybe moved on for good (although it wouldn't surprise me if I find him again on Monday). The Bearded Tits for once though showed well. It was difficult to know how many there were due to their habit of keeping low and moving quickly and unseen through the reeds and the misleading nature of their calls. We saw two females and a male together but I suspect there were more and maybe double the number.

The Arctic Tern is still growing strong but is clearly having to work harder to find food and after giving a close flyby it disappeared towards Oslo.

I gave the Glauc yet another go and allowed myself to get briefly excited by the head (the rest of the bird was hidden) of a large and pale 2nd winter Herring Gull but otherwise there were a couple of hybrid like 1st winters and a striking leucistic adult. This bird is apparently well known amongst the Oslo larophiles and has been given the name Leif apparently a word play on "feil" the Norwegian word for wrong/mistake. My pictures suck but here is a link to much better shot of the same bird from this blog.

male Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis)

the females were a bit shyer

Leif the leucistic Herring Gull (gråmåke)

Leif again - gets you pulse up a few beats

The Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne) was resting on it preferred rock

and the flew by close and fast and with the sun behind it (as it usually does)

this was the gull that got me going for a bit. I never saw it properly but assume it is a 2nd winter Herring Gull

there was some very contrasting light today with heavy clouds and sunlight which made these Mute Swans (knoppsvane) really stand out