R.I.P Fornebu

The Beast and I had our regular Friday boyz morning out and chose to visit Fornebu today where we hoped to spot some nice chicks. Unfortunately, Fornebu is now in its death throws as a birding location. The airport closed in 1998 and since then the redevelopment of the site has progressed very slowly which has been to the benefit of wildlife. The pace of the “development” has picked up in the last couple of years though and it was painful to see that the best area has now been scraped clean of all vegetation and fenced off awaiting the building of apartments that will probably be called Plover Place or something similar. This area held breeding Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers, Skylarks, Linnets and Wheatears and on passage held goodies such as Snow Bunting, Shore Lark and Woodlark as well as large flocks of finches and pipits. Despite the site looking like a battlefield there was still a Skylark singing over it today and three Twite briefly stopped there – all probably remembering how good it used to be there.

Fornebu held little else with all water being frozen but a couple of Water Rails called from the reedbeds and a flock of Redpolls (of which there are lots around at the moment) held one definte Arctic (plus at least one more probable), a couple of Lessers and the rest were Mealy. Offshore 5 Shelduck were my first of the year.

Lots of Stonechats are turning up in Southern Norway at the moment and this was a species I hoped to find today. I failed at Fornebu and then at Bygdøy and in Maridalen but the chances should be good over the coming weeks. Bygdøy held over 100 Greylag Geese with 3 Barnacle, 2 Canada and a Canada x Greylag hybrid amongst them but nothing more exciting.

Oslo Harbour held 195 Common Eiders and 300 Goldeneye and I really thought I would find the male King Eider that has been knocking around the Oslofjord for a couple of years now but that I didn’t find it came as no surprise when a message came through that it was 100km to the south.

A stop at Østensjøvannet revealed a sizaeable area of open water that was full of birds. 18 vocal Whooper Swans and 27 Mute Swans were quite a sight alongside Coots, 6 species of duck, 3 species of geese and another couple of hybrids.

Maridalen was quiet except for a singing Great Grey Shrike the sound of which carried many hundred metres.

An Arctic Redpoll either a species or a clinal subspecies/morph depending on how you look at it. This is a pretty straightforward example with very white base colour, small bill, large white rump, little flank streaking and seemingly all white undertail coverts

here with a pale Mealt (Common) Redpoll

I am unsure about this bird. It is pale and looks to have a large white rump but is clearly a male due to the pink breast and therfore the streaking on the flanks seems to be too much 

this bird was also pale and had a large white rump but bill is not very small

the left hand bird is possibly the same as above and has a very large white rump and looks to be pale but I am unsure where this should be placed

here the Arctic is the right hand bird but does not really stand out

the 3 Twites checking out Plover Place

male Goldeneye at Østensjøvannet 

and male Goosander (laksand)

a Little Grebe (dvergdykker) in Oslo Harbour

part of the scene at Østensjøvannet

female Mallard (stokkand)

male Mallard

and a so-called "intersex" Mallard which is a female (see bill) but has a plumage that is very male like