OSLO BIRDER: Very, very cold

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.