Snow

It snowed last night to the extent that the snow ploughs were out. Temperatures today were only just under zero and this seemed to cause problems on the roads for some. In Maridalen two BMWs with young male drivers had managed to drive off the road whereas a mighty Suzuki Vitara with a middle-aged driver who has his eyes anywhere but the road had absolutely no problems 😉

Snow always brightens things up and suddenly the days feel longer. I kept to Maridalen today and enjoyed the conditions even if the snow hadn’t caused an influx of news birds. Two different Pygmy Owls showed if not particularly well and a flock of over 100 Yellowhammers unfortunately didn’t contain anything rarer. The Guillemot is still on the lake and the Marsh Tit is also still present and was perhaps not the only one of its kind.

Crested Tit (toppmeis)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) #1 showed no better than this

#2 started off even further away

then a bit closer

and finally at acceptable range

I have written about the ID of Marsh versus Willow Tit and mentioned that it is particularly difficult in GB where the race of Willow looks quite different to the Scandinavian birds. I pulled this picture from the Birdguides weekly email and look just how different it is to the birds from around Oslo that I have recently posted pictures of. It is so warm coloured and most different of all it has a brown rear cheek with a dividing line which is the exact feature I have been using to separate Marsh from Willow here!