Thursday 6 May 2021

Flying ducks

 It snowed yesterday! Normally snow in May leads to really great birding with loads of grounded migrants but with the late spring and very strong NE winds there were no migrating birds to be grounded.

The fields in Maridalen had no new birds although yesterday’s Whinchat was still present and permitted a photo. On the lake there were far fewer divers but a male Common Scoter was new in and showed well.

I visited Østensjøvannet hoping for some ducks and hirundines and I did see some although nothing rare. 20 each of House Martin and Swallow could well be the entire population in Oslo at the moment and a couple of male Gadwall have been there a few days.

male Common Scoter (svartand) - not often I see one this well

male Gadwall (snadderand)

Teal (krikkand)

Common Scoter

with the 4 Teal




the bill of a male Common Scoter is very impressive

male Gadwall with Mallard

and with a female Goldeneye (kvinand) in the background and also the male Wigeon x Mallard hybrid


the four Teal. The righ hand female has an interestiny face pattern with a white spot behind the bill which is reminiscent of rarer species

male Whinchat (buskskvett)

Common Sandpiper (strandsnipe)

Green Sandpiper (skogsnipe)

Osprey (fiskeørn) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (sildemåke) at Østensjøvannet

Ring Ouzel (ringtrost) and Mistle Thrush (duetrost) together in Maridalen

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