Daytime local birding

Daytime birding in Oslo felt a bit unusual yesterday. It was a damp day and mosquitos are starting to be a problem now unfortunately. Highlight was seeing that the Whooper Swan pair had a flotilla of hatched young in tow. Yet again they have 7 young which according to BWP is the largest recorded clutch size so they seem to be prodigious parents. Fingers crossed that all seven fledge as they did last year - it is no wonder that Whooper Swan numbers seem to be increasing. Correction: on 22 June I saw they had 8 young meaning the books need to be rewritten! All my still photos from 6 June show 7 young (as below) and that is what I noted in the field but in a video I took that day there were clearly 8 young!

Mum, dad and  young Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

a large number of nest boxes were erected in Maridalen over the winter and this Starling (stær) youngster looks very home in one of them. The Starling population in the valley seems larger this year which may well be due to the provision of the boxes although there is no absence of natural holes which I would have thought would suit Starlings

Black Kite?

no - the valleys resident 2cy Common Buzzard (musvåk) easily identifiable by all its missing feathers