Hazel Grouse

Late autumn is a good time for finding Hazel Grouse as they are singing and also up in the trees eating catkins on alder trees. A walk in the forest provided me with a nice singing male only 15 minutes from the car which in Hazel Grouse terms is a real result! I wasn’t able to get close to it which is probably why it sat so nicely and for so long in the open rather than the usual 2 second obscured view they offer.

Otherwise the forest was dead quiet.

A short trip to Østensjøvannet gave unprecedented close views of two Little Grebes fishing for small perch. The closeness of the birds was probably because they felt protected by vegetation and overhanging trees in the area which meant that getting good photos was a challenge (as was the appalling light on an overcast November day) but I am pretty happy with what I got.

The Hazel Grouse (jerpe) was not close but gave (for the species) prolonged views

Little Grebe (dvergdykker)

here it is doing its best Red-necked Grebe  (gråstrupedykker) impression

the same bird as above looking very different