With December upon us I guess that it is officially winter although after the warmest November on record it doesn’t feel particularly wintery yet and there could well still be some movements of birds to come when the real winter weather sets in (if it does).
Since my last post I’ve had a few trips around Maridalen seeing the Hawkies, upto 3 Buzzards and a single Great Grey Shrike which could well be the roll call of birds for the next 3 months.
On Monday I attempted to repeat Friday’s forest goodies but I failed showing once again how fickle forest birds are. It was a very nice walk though with a thin layer of snow combined with a thick frost from freezing fog turning everything white.
Yesterday I visited the three main sites close to the city to see what was on offer. Bygdøy had it’s usual winter fair with 5 Purple Sandpipers, Long-tailed Duck and Common Scoter. Fornebu had its Bearded Tits whilst in Maridalen both Hawk Owls were on show and on the lake a pair of Whooper Swans and a Guillemot (not sure of this is a bird that has survived the last month or whether it is a new arrival).
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Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt) at Huk
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a few minutes after the boat passed then the wake hit land
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a Mexican standoff between a Purple Sand and a Red-breasted Merganser (siland)
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Long-tailed Duck (havelle) and Common Scoter (svartand)
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the scoter
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only a handful of Common Eiders (ærfugl) winter close to Oslo with the majority flying to more open sea
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Great Grey Shrike (varsler) and a very heavy frost
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I've almost stopped taking photos of the Hawk Owls now although upto 30 photographers a day ensure that Facebook overflows with images of them
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I have posted a picture of this leucistic Hooded Crow before. Leucisim often results in weaker feathers as can be seen on this bird
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The Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) showed very well again yesterday. I was there a bit later in the day so had different lighting conditions
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| having a shake |
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they seem to be constantly eating the reed seeds so I assume that there is very little energy in each small seed
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At around 300m over sea everything was suddenly white on Monday!
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it appears that pictures of this beast are popular so here he is...
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Sunrise at Huk, Bygdøy on Tuesday and the booze cruise from Kiel returning to Oslo
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ReplyDeleteGreat pictures and types of birds. We hope to be able to come to Norway next year for the large amount of special bird species. The winter landscape has already started with you, great winter photos. Greetings Chris