OSLO BIRDER: Puffin n Piney

It has continued to blow freshly from the south so the fjord has been of interest with the hope of some interesting seabirds. On Friday I watched from Fornebu rather than Huk as I needed to be close to the car and Halden Brygge allows you to watch basically from the car park. I already knew that a Puffin had been seen close by earlier in the day so this was again on my radar as was Brunnich’s Guillemot. There were lots of auks moving around and I tried to identify every bird I saw with over 200 Guillemot and around 40 Razorbill noted. One bird got my pulse racing for a bit but proved to be a Common Guillemot still in partial summer plumage but 2 Puffins were a lot easier to identify. One flew by on its own at relatively close range and allowed photos to be taken and half an hour later what I assume to be another bird flew past at much longer range with Guillemots and could be seen to fly close past Huk on the other side of the fjord.

I also went Grozza hunting and had 3 birds in Maridalen and 28 at Grefsenkollen all of which were probably 1^st cy birds (no adult males). Today I had 25 in Maridalen of which one was an adult male. In the last week I have observed 112 birds and only 4 have been adult males. This ratio of 4% compares with about 40% two winters ago. What is driving this 10 fold difference?

Tomorrow I am guiding with Grozzas, forest birds and seabirds hopefully all on the agenda. Let’s see what the Bird Gods have in mind for me…

Puffin (lunde) close to Fornebu with Huk, Bygdøy in the distance

Huk in the distance and Puffin close to it - honest. I actually reckon this does count as a record shot as the bird smudge to the left is a Guillemot and the Puffin to the right. The Puffin has dark underwings, stubby wings and a dark head whilst the other smudge doesn't .....