OSLO BIRDER: European Green Capital 2019

Oslo has been awarded the title of European Green Capital 2019 (although it may be more correct to say that the City Council paid for the privilege). For someone who is interested in biodiversity it is a bit odd as Oslo City Council like the rest of the official Norway is absolutely pants at protecting and promoting biodiversity although does deserve recognition for its exceptional skills at killing off biodiversity. Oslo City and the rest of Norway is however very good at reducing carbon emissions and has effective recycling schemes although it is rather ironic that this is due to enormous financial subsidies being used and the ultimate source of all this money is all the fossil fuels that Norway sells to other countries to burn and pollute with.

Anyway, during 2019 there are a number of activities to celebrate and promote this greenness and (unbeknownst to me) the City has allowed private organisations to apply for funds to promote greenness. Related to this, David Lindo, aka The Urban Birder has just visited Oslo and led a field trip and held a presentation for the local bird club which was very enjoyable for yours truly, The (semi-urban) Oslo Birder 😊

And today I visited Marcia Kyle who is the passion behind an urban permaculture project called Parkens Grøde. Marcia has managed to get funds from the council to improve the area for urban birds and has asked me to lead a birding outing in the area later in the year. It is very impressive what Marcia and the others in the group have achieved and I am looking forward to following the birdlife in the area.

I combined my visit to Parkens Grøde with some green urban birding and walked along Akerselva and visited Marienlyst Park and Forgnerparken. I was rewarded with Peregrine, Goshawk and Sparrowhawk, Dipper, Grey Heron and Teal amongst others. Less concrete jungle urban birding yesterday, but still within the city, revealed excellent views of four Purple Sandpipers at Huk, Bygdøy.