OSLO BIRDER: Lull

Today and tomorrow are the lull before the storm with settled cold weather and little wind before a front comes in on Saturday with strong southerly winds and a dump of snow/rain.

There was no special bird activity today although there seem to be a few more Wood Pigeons around. I tried twice for some interesting gulls at the dump. When I first arrived all the gulls were flying high up having most likely just been spooked by a raptor and they did not return during the course of a half hour that I waited. I decamped to Østensjøvannet where I thought some of them may have gone but there were no gulls there either. When I returned to dump later though all the gulls had retuned (3-400) and were feeding within the buildings much more actively than I have previously noted. I had about half an hour to grill them before once again something spooked them and they all flew up high and just circled. I did not manage to find a Caspo or a white-winged gull but amongst the Herring Gulls there were as usual a few strange birds.

The Great Grey Shrike was again showing well in Maridalen but did not catch anything whilst I was watching which was my hope. When I saw the bird on 15^th and when Rune C saw it yesterday it had a notciceable black line headin back from the bill on its left hand side. This was not visible on the 9^th and today there was only a faint sign of it. What caused this black line? Is is possible there are two different birds?

slightly better picture of Bullfinch (dompap) today

loads of Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb) but no youngsters yet

the Great Grey Shrike (varsler) hunting low down by a house

and high up over a field

and low down again

the sometimes present black line on the shrikes face

Leif the partially leucistic Herring Gull who received his ring on 7 Jan. This is the first report of him since then showing that even a very noticeable bird can avoid detection for long periods