..not to twitch

There wasn’t chaos on the roads today but that was because the forecast snow turned very quickly to rain and it became just a normal wet autumn day. It was a dark day though and I wasn’t tempted to make the 2 hour drive and search for the Desert Warbler and if it was there to only get sh*ty views. Instead I followed my own tracks from the last few weeks and went to Fornebu.

Today I discovered the Kingfisher by sight rather than by hearing it and although it did call a few times during the hour I was there it was much less vocal than normal which was probably due to the cold, wet weather. The snow that had fallen was lying on the surface of the water meaning that there were far fewer suitable places for it to fish which made it quite easy to work out where it would try to fish. I managed to position myself hidden from the bird and waited for it to fly in to me which it did twice and I had it at less than 10 metres range but both times I raised the camera I revealed my presence and it flew off. Not wishing to stop it finding food I left it alone but may need to invest in a doghouse portable hide.

With the weather as poor as it was there was very little bird activity but I did hear the Bearded Tits and in Maridalen the Great Grey Shrike was looking for mice from the telegraph wires. I put some food out at one of the feeding stations and nearly before I got back into the car the area was alive with birds: 12 Great Tits, 8 Blue Tits, 5 Coal Tits, 1 Willow Tit, 2 Nuthatches and a Treecreeper were clearly very hungry.

In the garden there have been very few tits with just a pair each of Great and Blue but there were a lot of sparrows looking for food this morning with 25 House and 15 Tree.

No photos today due to the weather and uncooperative birds although I did foolishly have the camera over my shoulder despite the rain and it is now receiving some TLC and hopefully drying out.