The Firecrest was Bærum Kommune’s most visited
tourist attraction and perhaps the best pictures to date were the result
although I of course was not in the vicinity as I prefer to visit when the
light is bad and the crowds non-existent.
Yesterday I paid another visit to the Drøbak area
but again without finding anything too exciting although Rock Pipit and Twite
were good winter records. Both these species were feeding on an offshore island
1km from where I was viewing. The Rock Pipit was just about identifiable but
the six Twite were another story. I managed to conclude they were small finches
and the choice therefore lay between Redpoll and Twite. Their behaviour pointed
in the direction of the later but I was only able to nail them when they
luckily flew off the island and eventually over my head calling.
Today the weather was suitably dreary that a visit
to Fornebu was appealing. At least three Bearded Tits were calling and two
showed in the reedbed and the Firecrest gave itself up relatively easily by
calling just often enough that I first found it and could then follow it. It
moved over 500m in the hour I was watching it with I assume continuous movement
necessary to keep warm (temperatures are down to about -7C). It was mostly low
down but for about 10 minutes was feeding up in the top of small low pine trees
where it then became quite vocal. I have previously assumed the bird to be a 1st
winter male due to the orange but not deep red colour to the crown. The only
way to really age them though it the shape of the tail feathers and good
pictures have shown them to be pointed which confirms the age as 1st
winter and the crown colour confirms it to be a male. Otherwise there was
really very little at Fornebu and the two Goldcrests seem to have moved away.
A trip to Maridalen surprisingly revealed a Great
Grey Shrike. It was in exactly the same tree as the last bird I saw in the Dale
on 20 October but this bird has more white in the wing than that bird and is
presumably a bird pushed out of a territory further north which is no long suitable
due to too much snow.
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| Great Grey Shrike (varsler) in Maridalen - the first record for 3 months |
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| Firecrest |
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| the sharply pointed tail feathers that mean it is a 1st winter |
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| it spent most of its time in the snow as usual |
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