OSLO BIRDER: A birding first

Winter really won’t let go this year. A lot of wet snow fell last night and any birds like Skylarks or Lapwings that have returned will be having big problems now although I expect the majority are wise enough to have headed south again.

I thought that the snow would make a trip to Fornebu worthwhile. It is nearly six weeks since Bearded Tits were reported there but I reckoned there was still a chance they were there and with heavy wet snow there was a higher chance that they would be feeding at the tops of the reeds. I didn’t have to wait very long until I heard a bird and it was relatively close but very frustratingly I never saw it more likely them. What was very exciting though was that in addition to the usual “ping” call I heard song. I have never heard the song before and it is a very brief affair which sounds a bit like a Magpie but the sound matches written descriptions and was the same as this recording:

http://www.xeno-canto.org/25559

Bearded Tits can start egg laying in early April so there is a chance that there will actually be breeding here which would be a first if confirmed although May records from 2005 and 2001 are a strong indication of breeding.

A walk around Nansenpark didn’t reveal a single migrant bird (so no Twite, Skylarks or Snow Buntings).

At Bygdøy the Greylag Geese continue to increase and I counted 99. Finding food was a struggle and each bird had dug its own hole in the snow and was eating brown grass – yummy!

PS. I forgot to mention that I saw my first Shelduck lgying forlornly over a frozen bay at Fornebu but that now means that all eight of the early spring migrants have fallen.