Today I had a nice stroll in Maridalen but soon regretted
not having a hat as my ears started burning in the cold. The Shrike was not
visible to me at first but four scolding Common Crossbills soon alerted me to
it as they chased it in flight. It perched briefly on its once favoured wires
before continuing away on its search for food. Amongst the crossbills was one
giving the 2BC like trumpet call that I have heard a few times and which is a
real trap for the unwary. Maridalen had little else to offer with no raptors
making use of the nice conditions – a wondering Golden Eagle must be a distant
possibility. The lake had a thin layer of ice in the bays and a couple of young
Mute Swans were looking a little forlorn. It is interesting how Mute Swan parents
push their offspring away much earlier than Whooper and Bewick’s although this
is presumably explained by the latter two species being migratory and needing
to teach their young the migration routes whereas the Mute Swans just make
small local movements and reckon the young can work things out themselves.
I made a stop at Østensjøvannet which was well and truly
frozen with just the usual two small areas of open water which the bread eating
birds themselves keep ice free. The usual overwintering wildfowl population
seems to be in place now although I was surprised to see the escaped Ruddy
Shelduck still here as by this time last year it had moved off. Amongst 320
Mallard, were 28 Coots, 7 Canada Geese, 4 Barnacle Geese, 1 Greylag Goose and a
female Pintail which is the only non-Mallard duck that is trying its luck this
year. On the hybrid front the long staying Canada x Greylag and the newly
arrived Wigeon x Mallard were present. The Wigeon hybrid is making good use of
its Mallard genes and had no problem fighting for food when a women who the
birds clearly recognised turned up with a plastic bag full of bread.
Amongst the Coots are two 1cy birds which are still in
juvenile plumage. One of these must be the late juvenile I photographed on 21
October. The younger looking of the two juveniles has a misformed wing which
apparently can be blamed on a poor diet which would not be surprising so late
in the season when there must be much less choice of vegetable matter. This
defect is often blamed on an artificial, for example bread rich, diet but I
cannot remember ever having seen it on Mallards. The female Pintail which has
been here a couple of months was in a very bad state today and I wonder whether
this can be blamed on a bread rich diet. Mallards are presumably OK with bread
rich diets which explains why they are able to adapt to so many habitats and
climates whereas Pintails may not be so adaptable. Anyway the Pintail was
standing on the bank when all the other ducks were in the water and was facing
the sun and vigorously preening. Whilst preening it had its tail spread and
both wings were shivering/vibrating coninually. Some of the feathers were
clearly in a bad state although it was able to flap its wings normally. In one
of the pictures I took it looks as though it may be injured under one of its
wings although this may just be as a result of it being in bad condition. When
the bread lady arrived it made no attempt to join in the scrum and I also never
saw it on the water even when someone walked too close and scared it. Difficult
to know the cause of the birds problems but it wouldn’t surprise me if it
stopped being reported quite soon.
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| The juvenile Coot (sothøne) with a misformed wing. The ice on the feathers is a sign that it is not able to care for its feathers properly but it is amazingly still alive |
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| from behind it doesn't look well |
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| what I assume to be the same bird on 21 October |
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| another bird still with some juvenile plumage on the chest but no deformities |
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| a healthy looking adult Coot |
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| this Coot was ringed just two days ago and aged as a 1cy and sexed as a male. That it is a 1cy can just about be seen from the small white frontal shield and the darker eye than the adult in the picture above. That it is a male was presumably determined from measurements with males and particularly their toes being significantly larger |
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| surprisingly the Wigeon x Mallard hybrid remains bling free. Here it is joining in the bread melee |
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| and it had no problem fighting its way to some |
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| The unwell female Pintail (stjertand). From behind the spread tail and wings plus general poor state of the plumage can be seen |
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| the wings were always hanging and shivering |
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| here on the underwin it can be seen tat many feathers look to be in poor condition and there is flesh showing and possibly some blood on the feathers. Is this the result of an injury or just from being in bad form? |
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| wonder how long this will survive |
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| frost crystals |
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| Maridalen's Great Grey Shrike (varsler) |
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| exciting light at the moment. Here Maridalsvannet |
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