Today I was guiding Aron from Canada but now living in Oslo. Aron had a list of birds he wanted to see plus a
desire to get to know some of the best birding areas a bit better. As it is
November there is not a lot of variety to see but I was able to point out the
best places for birding in the spring plus of course try to find the best birds
that are currently on offer. I have clearly pleased the Bird Gods – perhaps my
eye injury was some sort of sacrifice to them – because the good birds just
kept on coming and coming. A morning’s birding gave us a flock of Pine Grosbeak
down to 2 metres, a pair of Hazel Grouse feeding on the ground only a few metres
from us for a long period of time and to wrap things up a Pygmy Owl also at
very close range. On top of this we had 5 species of tit including Crested,
Brambling, Dipper and Sparrowhawk amongst others.
Before Covid came to haunt us in the winter of 19/20
I was able to guide a stream visiting birders to my “Taiga Trio” of Pine Grosbeak,
Great Grey Owl and Hawk Owl. Post(ish) Covid maybe I can show a small trickle
of birders a new Taiga threesome of PG, HG & PO.
Pine Grosbeak (konglebit)
Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)
Hazel Grouse (jerpe)
and a few more pictures of them all
the male HG which seemed to be picking up sand
PG
two very different plumaged birds. The back one is an advanced 1st winter male whilst the close bird is also a 1st winter and presumably a female
the 1st w male
1st w male again
and presumed 1st w female (no red feathers coming through)
PO
at one stage the owl became very alert and started moving its tail about
A few pictures from Thursday when a weasel ran over the road and Black and Green Woodpeckers showed themselves
Black Woodpecker (svartspett) in silhouette
Green Woodpecker (grønnspett)
Weasel (snømus) in its white winter coat. This is only the second or third time I can remember seeing one and they really are tiny!
You might be thinking the answer to that question is
Golden Eagle or perhaps Eagle Owl. Well you are wrong – it is Hazel Grouse! I
discovered this when a Hazel Grouse nearly caused me to lose my eyesight on Monday.
You might be wondering how this happened and the precise details of the episode
may indeed suggest that I should be asking what is Norway’s most dangerous tree
😉
but to cut a long story short whilst trying to sneak closer to said bird a twig
snapped into my eyeball and left me wreathing in pain. It took a couple of days
before I could see properly out of my left eye but the damage does not seem to
be permanent and the cloud has lifted.
I had a pair of Hazel Grouse feeding in the same
alder trees as recently and had another male singing within earshot of this
pair so things are looking promising for future observations. A male Three-toed
Woodpecker also moved through and showed very well in typical fashion before
just disappearing.
We have had out first proper cold period (but
nothing unusual for this time of the year) and Østensjøvannet has nearly
completely frozen over. This caused all the birds to congregate in a couple of
areas of open water and the female Gadwall showed very well. This bird is very
easy to overlook due to its resemblance to a female Mallard but this resemblance
also means that if one is particularly looking for it that one can quite easily
string a female Mallard (or two) into being it.
female Hazel Grouse (jerpe) high up in an alder tree feeding on catkins
the male proved harder to see this time
female again
as I found them sitting motionless like footballs
male Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett)
a Buzzard (musvåk) is set to spend the winter in Maridalen. It looks to be one of the birds from last winter. Here with Fieldfares (gråtrost)
there are still a lot of Fieldfares around and they are finding lots of rowan berries to eat
the female Gadwall (snadderand) with Coot (sothøne)
a noticeably grey rather than pure white speculum
congregation of Coots
the Mallard x Wigeon hybrid
Teal (krikkand)
Tufted Duck (toppand)
Whooper Swans (sangsvane) in Maridalen, with 6 young this could well be the local family that has not been seen for many weeks
Since my last post I have been stocking up on
Grozzas and Grouses with a trip to Østensjøvannet to give me some other
impulses. Far fewer Pine Grosbeaks are being reported but if you know where to
look it is still possible to find them and yesterday I had flocks of 13 and 4
but not a single adult male amongst them. A female Hazel Grouse gave herself
very easily when I went to check out the favoured alders but there are only a
few trees in this area so when all the catkins are eaten up I will have find
out where they have moved to but as they usually have relatively small
territories then it shouldn’t be too hard. It is very interesting to watch such
a large bird clambering around in the top of a tree nipping off the catkins.
At Østensjøvannet there was a very large concentration
of birds and a Goshawk tried its luck with the Wigeon which caused them to fly
around giving their evocative call and passing close to me on a number of
occasions which was quite magical..
Wigeon (brunnakke) Østensjøvannet
Lots of waterfowl are congregating before the ice comes and forces them south
I still can't get enough of Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit)
female Hazel Grouse (jerpe)
a particularly congregation of Blue and Great Tits
