Black Guillemot - Oslo X

Yesterday was a day of contrasts. The morning saw me Beast walking in the forest and then in the afternoon I joined Halvard H on his boat for a fabulous trip on the fjord.

The forest gave up two of its treasures: Hawk Owl and Hazel Grouse. My experience with the grouse went some way to confirming my theory that having the dog with me actually helps in getting good views of this species. All my recent close and prolonged encounters have been when the Beast has been with me. His presence is an irritation when his impatience makes it difficult for me to take photos but I think that the birds are curious about him presumably because he is a predator. When I have gone without him with the sole purpose of getting good photos or guiding then the birds have been far more difficult to see. Maybe he will have to join me guiding….

I was really looking forward to the boat trip on the fjord. There was next to no wind so it would be a pleasant trip and I wouldn’t end up with a bad back for the next two weeks which has the flip side of previous trips. I had also seen a lot of birds on the fjord on Wednesday so expected we would find a lot from the boat. Andreas G was also out on his boat and was ahead of us which took some of the fun out of things as we knew what to expect but in the end there was, with one noticeable exception, very little to see. The exception was a Black Guillemot. I have only seen this species twice previously in Akershus and never in Oslo so when Andreas reported he had seen one then we were very keen o see it. We relocated it around 1.5km from where Andreas saw it and had close views from the boat although taking photos from a boat no matter how calm it is is not easy. The bird was in Akershus although very close to the Oslo border and jokingly (?) I suggested gently encouraging it towards the big smoke. This was not necessary though as the bird of its own accord suddenly took off and flew far into Oslo territory giving me a new county tick and taking me 238 species.

Hazel Grouse (jerpe), as you will see from the sequence of photos it is never an easy bird to photo even if it sits still quite close to you

Hawkie seems quite happy with his chosen clearing

Black Guillemot (teist) with Oslo city centre in the background

a good mystery bird photo

and the proof that it was in Hvervenbukta and therefore Oslo

a Grey Seal (havert)

This Cormorant (storskarv) stood out bt being noticeably smaller and reminded me that I need to read up on the ID of Double Crested Cormorant

This 1st winter Common Gull (fiskemåke) appeared very large and with the well marked bill had me considering Ring-billed Gull

This well marked Velvet Scoter (sjøorre) also caused some excitement until it revealted the white in its wing

less confusion with these adult males (and a young male? on left)