Another day of very cold temperatures (-14C at
breakfast) and with a biting wind making it feel even colder. The cold got the
better of me a couple of times and I had to retreat to the car to warm up. I
started the day hoping to see the White-backed Woodpecker again but despite
some good old hard work I failed to see it although a Great Spotted Woodpecker
first picked up tapping away got me going briefly.
I took the rather scary Oslo Fjord Tunnel (although
a major road it is frequently closed due to accidents and a favourite type is
the brakes of HGVs over heating due to the 3km long, steep ascent and catching
fire….) and then checked out the Drøbak area. A Little Grebe showed really well
and caught and devoured a fish that I would imagine would count as breakfast,
lunch and dinner. A small flock of Velvet Scoters fed unusually close to shore
(usually this species is always a long way out) and had clearly found some sea
urchins or crabs as they kept diving in unison over the same spot. I grilled
them but had to accept that all of them were “just”. 11 were adult males (or at
least 3cy+) and 3 were in female like plumage. Closer inspection showed that at
least one of these was a young (2cy) male and the other 2 may also have been. I
have noticed many times before how winter flocks of Velvet Scoter contain a
real overweight of adult males which contrasts with the smaller numbers of
overwintering Common Scoters which seem to always be young birds (sex undetermined).
A group of around 50 Common Eiders were cooing away in the sunshine but also
failed to reveal any rarer cousins in their midst.
I had a drive by Great Grey Shrike on the way home
and a drive through Maridalen did not reveal a single bird (or at least that I
can remember) …
Little Grebe (dvergdykker) - the sunshine now makes photography easier
although it was in the shade when it took the (relatively) large fish
clockwise from top left in the act of positioning and then swallowing the fish
can't ever remember seeing the foot of a Little Grebe before
always nice with a Waxwing (sidensvans)
I only had a Great Spotted Woodpecker (today) and with Sunday's White-backed for comparison
14 Velvet Scoters (sjøorre) and 4 Eiders (ærfugl)
The Velvets. Note there are 11 adult (or 3cy+) males and 3 in female/immature plumage (one with head down)
here the bill colouration of the immatuure/female bird shows its to be a 2cy male
Today was only -9C but with a north easterly wind gusting at over 10m/s
it felt a lit colder than yesterday. This weather is a real killer for birds
with food hard to find and extra energy needed to keep warm. I toured Oslo’s
hotspots today and found far fewer birds than I would have expected to see a
couple of weeks ago. Some birds could of course have successfully moved away to
warmer climes (wherever that might be at the moment) but the two young Moorhens
that have been in Frognerparken were absent today and have I fear met their
maker. It is interesting that if the winter had been mild and these birds had successfully
over wintered then they would presumably do so again next year and their offspring
the same thus evolving a mini population with a new migration strategy, but
their demise just goes to show that moving south to warmer climes is, and has always
been, the best strategy. The Teal population at Frognerparken was also diminished
to three birds but I have also noticed in previous winters that the birds
disappear when it is really cold and icy but soon return so they presumably
have an alternative location somewhere nearby although I can’t think where that
would be.
Despite the weather I saw Oslo’s first migrant Oystercatcher of the
year. Two birds have wintered at Bygdøy (this is very unusual) but today there
were three birds although none of them looked particularly happy. A Little
Grebe was also here, and a light coloured young Peregrine flew through. The bird was ringed although my photos are too poor to make out even the colour of the ring.
At Østensjøvannet 350 or so Mallards are keeping a tiny area of water
ice free and thankfully the City Council seem to have accepted their error in
trying to outlaw feeding and have instead changed the signs to outlawing the
dumping of food waste. When someone came with some bread the birds went pretty
wild showing how necessary continued feeding is (once it has started). Amongst
the Mallards the usual suspects of the adult female Pintail, a young male
Wigeon and single Barnacle and Canada Goose were still present and accounted for
although the Coot population has fallen by one bird to seven. Quite a few birds
had clumps of ice on their beaks and feathers which didn’t look to healthy.
Maridalen appeared birdless and the wind was blowing the snow across the
roads creating polar conditions.
This male Mallard (stokkand) had a serious amount of ice on its bill
as did the young male Wigeon (brunnakke)
the only open water at Østensjøvannt
the icy conditions at Huk, Bygdøy and the three Oystercatchers (tjeld)
Little Grebe (dvergdykker)
this Magpie in Maridalen had been sitting on top of one of the famous statues in Frognerparken and was being photographed by a tourist with her iphone but by the time I got my camera out it had dropped down and the moment has passed..
young Peregrine (vandrefalk)
the bird is ringed but none of my photos allow any detail to be seen
Today heralded the start of the cold period that is forecast to dominate
northern Europe for the next couple of weeks. The thermometer at home showed –
17C at breakfast and during my travels today it dipped down to -22C which I
reckon equals the lowest temperature I have experienced. It was a fantastic day
though with blue skies, sun and little wind so amazingly enough it never felt
cold.
I thought I would use the sun to try to get some good photos of
Kingfisher. What I failed to factor in though was that the temperature had
resulted in ice everywhere. I visited three sites that have recently held Kingfisher
but all were iced over. This doesn’t bode well for the birds which I assume are
now looking for food along open areas of the fjord but I don’t think there will
be much for them to find and it is just these cold spells that are the reason
that Kingfishers are only a rare and occasional breeding species in Norway.
I ended up covering a lot of kilometres today for next to no reward
except for the end of my day when I again had an up close and personal meeting
with a Pygmy Owl in Maridalen. This bird was most likely the same female (based on calls) that I had nearby three weeks ago.
'T'was cold today
Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) showed well again in Maridalen today
when you can't find a Kingfisher in the sun then you have to make do with a female Mallard..
Before today White-backed Woodpecker was one of three
species of regular breeder on the Norwegian mainland that I had not seen in
Norway with the other 2 being Stonechat and Leaches Petrel.
Norway
has a very important population of White-backed Pecker but these birds are all
in the west of Norway and have eluded me the couple of times I have searched
for them in prime habitat. I have however seen the species before in the
Pyrenees where it is supposed to be very hard to find.
Until the
1970s there was a small population in south east Norway, but these died our
possibly as a result of being out-competed by Great Spotted Wood. In Sweden
there are handful of birds left which being augmented by captive bred birds but
I don't think this population has much chance.
Every now
and again irruptions of birds from much further east cross the Baltic and I
wonder whether this is the origin of the bird I saw today as Norwegian birds do
not seem prone to wandering.
The bird
I saw was just 40km from Oslo and was first seen on 6 Nov, there were then a
sighting on 3 Dec but nothing again until a week ago after which it seems to
have settled down into a small area. Despite my dislike for, and incompetence
at, twitching I decided on an early morning visit today and was so successful
that I might have to try it more often. Less than 5 minutes after parking the
car and wandering into the wood I heard tapping and quickly got onto the bird.
I was
then able to watch it for 20 minutes as it hacked noisily at trees at
varying heights. Compared to GS Wood its hacking was louder and it also seemed
to attack the trees more violently with splinters flying.
male White-backed Woodpecker (hvitryggspett) - the snow shows how close to the ground the bird was
Today was a good day to visit the Botanical Garden
in Oslo. My reasoning (which differs to that of the majority of people) being
that it was cloudy and sleeting and there would therefore be nobody else there
and I could enjoy the birds on my own…
There was a nice flock of Redpolls at one of the
feeders and amongst them was a nice 1st winter / 2cy male of the
northern clinal form, aka Arctic Redpoll. This bird stood out as a much colder,
whiter bird and the large white rump and undertail coverts confirm the ID but
in my pictures it looks a lot greyer although I put this down to the light and
the poor quality of the photos. As usual there was a wide variety of plumages
and sizes amongst the redpolls and there was at least one other bird that was
probably of the arctic type but I only ever saw this bird above me in a tree
and never noticed it on the ground so it might well be that it gave a different
and less convincing impression when seen on the ground (all the birds were
frequently coming down to feed on sunflower seeds). None of the birds conformed
to the southern clinal form aka Lesser Redpoll.
There was the usual variety of other finches (9
species in total) but a single Blackbird was the only thrush I saw suggesting
that all berries have now been eaten
On the Plaza hotel there are now two Peregrines: an
adult and a 1st winter/2cy. It is normally only an adult that
winters in town with young birds migrating south to Europe and I think it is
unusual for two birds to hang out together unless they are a pair. I would
imagine therefore that these birds are a parent and young and for some reason
the parent still has a bond to its offspring.
here the bird on the left is the same one in the other pictures. The bird on the right also looks to have a very large unmarked white rump but I never noticed this individual on the ground and believe that the rump has been make to look much larger and whiter due to the feathers being fluffed up. But it could well also be an arctic
the Arctic from different angles and looking decidedly different in each one
here the pointed outer tail feathers show it to be a 1st winter / 2cy bird
A redpoll that is difficult to place and may well be an arctic - note the small bill, fairly large white rump but the streaking on the undertail coverts may be too much and the ground colour on the back may not be light enough
despite a lot of white on the rump this is a Common Redpoll - large bill and streaking on the rump and too dark on the back
this bird was very striking. The bill was small and it was generally grey rather than brown but was very straked on the rump and flanks and undertail coverts. A Common Redpoll but from where?
a well marked male Common Redpoll
Despite the white rump this must be a Common Redpoll due to it being a male (red on breast) and a male arctic would have less flank streaking and greyer back
This bird was in the garden a couple of days ago on its own. Agian it has a small bill and a white rump (athough only a narrow area unstreaked). It could well be an arctic (and the first garden record) but not for sure
a small 2cy male Sparrowhawk was unpopular
Four species of finch (Chaffinch, Brambling, Greenfinch and Redpoll) are in this picture plus a possible arctic Redpoll. I also had Hawfinch, Bullfinch, Goldfinch and Siskin so quite a good finch day
Collared Dove
the two Peregrines on the top of the Plaza Hotel plus the reflection of one of the birds which has fooled more than one birder into thinking there were even more birds. The closer bird is a 2cy and and the further bird an adult. The noticeably larger size of the youngster suggests it is a female and the adult a male (daughter and father?)
