Saving a Guillemot

I have written about the number of Guillemots (lomvi) on the fjord now and how I have seen them flying over the city and on Maridalsvannet. A number have also been found on the ground in the city – wet roads can seemingly fool them into thinking they are landing on water – and today when driving home from a trip to Fornebu a strangely parked car alerted me to the presence of one close to home. I went back to see if I could help and found a couple of good Samaritans who were looking out for the bird and we quickly agreed that I would take the bird and release it on the sea. Getting hold of it proved to be trickier than expected and it can bit hard so in the end I resorted to throwing my coat over it. The dog cage proved a good thing to transport him in and we were quickly back at Fornebu.

As we walked down to the water a dead Guillemot was on the shoreline and this is probably the same fate that awaits the bird we saved but it did swim off strongly and dived frequently so there may be hope for it.

When the Guillemots arrive in the Inner Oslofjord they are often already in a bad condition (otherwise they wouldn’t so easily have been pushed in by what were not particularly strong winds). If they don’t find enough food in the fjord then their future is bleak and many struggle to find their way out to the open sea again as there is a bottle neck just north of Drøbak. One of the reasons so many turn up inland is that they start flying around over land searching for an escape route which unfortunately isn’t there.

Tonight and tomorrow we have much stronger southerly winds which will probably drive more birds in.

after capture

in the dogs cage. Note this is a so-called  "bridled" Guillemot (ringvi)

Video of the release:

a Guillemot that wasn't so lucky