I have got out for some birding every day so far in 2021 but it has been brief affairs and I have had no plan on racking up as many species as possible. Much of my birding time has in fact been spent failing to see an Iceland Gull that Halvard found on New Years Eve – I have always turned up too late or too early to see the bird.
Winter has finally arrived though and Maridalen is covered
with snow although the lake has yet to freeze over (just a bit of ice in the bays). The Hawk Owls seem to have
changed feeding grounds and are probably hunting more within the forest than in their previously favoured clearings where the snow is deep and my only sighting so far in 2021 has been of one
within thinned out forest. Otherwise Buzzard, Great Grey Shrike and Scaup have
all showed in the Dale making for a very good start to the year.
Some displaying Red-breasted Mergansers on the sea at Bygdøy provided lots of amusement.
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| male Red-breasted Mergansers (siland) |
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| there were 2 males and 2 females but I don't think they had formed pairs yet |
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| the males are very fun to watch and also make quite a bit of noise |
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| this female was not scared to make her opinions known |
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| this female is laying down the law |
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| the Beast |
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| this Whooper Swan family of a pair with 6 young had another adult accompanying them. If there had been 7 young then I would have found it tempting to assume this was the breeding family returning |
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| Common Buzzard (musvåk) |
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| this Pintail (stjertand) has been around Oslo for a while. Initially assumed to be a female it now shows itself to be a young male with a very delayed moult out of juvenile plumage |
Don't you think one of the young of the swans could have perished and this still be the family from Maridalen this year? Where else would these be coming from do you think, or would that only be vague speculation?
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely possible that it is the same family minus one youngster but we will never know. If it is the same family then where have they been the last two months? With the mild weather earlier im the winter there have probably been many Whooper Swans to the north of us who only had to move south now when the first really cold weather occured.
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