Saturday 21 January 2017

Little Grebe

I chose a visit to the Drøbak area yesterday hoping to get some control of a number of interesting species in the area. It wasn't as successful as I hoped with Hawk Owl and Kingfisher not showing but I did pin down Great Grey Shrike and Little Grebe.

I looked again for white-winged gulls without finding any and had very few Herrings Gulls either. I'm sure there used to be more Herring Gulls here and wonder if there has been a reduction in fishing activity.
There was very little else on the sea (I have to see an auk this year) but there were a couple of Harbour Seals and a cetacean that I concluded was a large Harbour Porpoise.


The Little Grebes (dvergdykker) were not easy to find and have a habit of diving and just disappearing. I wonder whether they actually come up underneath these floating pontoons. 
this second individual showed a bit better until it dived from this position and vanished. This site just north of  Drøbak is a traditional wintering location for Little Grebes. It is a bit of a mystery were they come from as breeding records in Norway are very few and far between.
This over wintering Greylag Goose has little food available but is surviving so far. The white is not snow but a heavy frost that has lain on the ground for a few days now

There is something strange about the feathering on the flanks and belly of this bird but it is not in the best condition 
Great views of two Great Grey Shrikes (varsler) today! The bird on the left was by Årungen and the right hand bird from Maridalen





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