First Snow

a snowy Maridalen

rowan trees full of berries

The first snow came yesterday and with it the first Waxwings! I also read in a Swedish Facebook group that Pine Grosbeaks have just started moving south there so maybe we will have a fantastic late winter autumn and early winter with rowan trees full of berries, Waxwings and Grozzas!

Despite the trees nearly collapsing under the weight of the berries there were hardly any thrushes left in Maridalen and 8 Waxwings and 30 Bramblings outnumbered them. A single Mistle Thrush was unusual though and I wonder whether it will attempt to spend the winter.

A trip to Østensjøvannet revealed around a 1000 Fieldfare feeding on playing fields and would perhaps explain why I only saw one in Maridalen. Do Fieldfares prefer worms to berries if they can choose?

The lake was also full of birds with Greylag Geese, Wigeon, Whooper Swans and Coots the most numerous. Scarcity was provided by a Scaup feeding at just a few metres range and a couple of Smew at a far greater distance. The Scaup was a 1^st winter and of the sort where you have to work a bit to convince yourself that it isn’t a female Tufted. There was also a female Tufted with a very white area around the bill that I worked hard with to convince myself it wasn’t a Lesser Scaup…

Waxwings (sidensvans) are a very welcome autumn guest

Bramblings (bjørkefink) were also eating the berries

Mistle Thrush (duetrost) together with Waxwings

a very cooperative Scaup (bergand)

I aged the bird as a 1cy female as it differed so much from the young males I saw in the mountains a couple of weeks ago (see next picture) and I noted no grey feathers in the field. But my pictures show there is one greyish feather on the the back so maybe this is also a male but much later in its moulting? Adult females are also greyish on flanks and back so the grey feather I see could also be OK for a female but I am not sure. The dark eye though would seem to be a definite sign if it being a young female.

a bird that looks like a Scaup but isn't. I considered Lesser Scaup but the bill isn't right. It is either a Tufted Duck (toppand) with a lot of white around the bill or maybe a hybrid

2 Smew (lappfiskand)