Monday plus

Yesterday was in many ways a repetition of Monday except that the pictures of Pygmy Owl were not so good this time (bird sat too high) and the pictures of Bearded Tits were in my unbiased view absolutely fabulous.

The light was again fantastic in Maridalen with fog, snow and sun creating lots of possibilities for exciting photos.

At Fornebu I had different groups of four Beardies in Storøykilen and Holtekilen but surprisingly had none in Koksa which is normally the preferred reedbed.

Maridalen failed to give me a repeat of the Pine Grosbeaks but the Whooper Swan family showed well although appeared restless and will probably soon move south for the winter.

male Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis). Taking pictures of moving birds in reeds in varying light and with a broken optical stabilisor is a bit challenging but if you hold your finger on the shutter button long enough then you get some acceptable results!

this one came out unusually sharp

they say that if the eye is on focus then the picture works...

the above pictures were taken in Holtekilen where the birds were feeding high up in the reeds. In Storøykilen however they were feeding on the ground at the base of the reeds

Bullfinches (dompap) have suddenly arrived in numbers in Maridalen

Goldfinch (stillits)

a young Goosander (laksand)

Grey Heron (hegre)

the small size of Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) is clear in comparison to a Yellowhammer (gulspurv)

I've never noticed this before but Pygmy Owls have little ears/tufts

Water Rail (vannrikse) tracks

The remaining members of the Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family in Maridalen

Cormorants in the Mist - could be a new Norwegian film

Maridalsvannet

this was how it looked at 09:10 and that is the sun through mist and not the moon

slightly underexposed at 10:00

the reedbed at Storøykilen