OSLO BIRDER: Grozza guiding

My guiding yesterday morning was an enjoyable and successful affair. I wanted to show Barry and Nadine from Switzerland the best that Oslo had to offer at the end of October and of course we had to start with Pine Grosbeaks. We found 30 birds in three three flocks with just a single adult male among them but we got to see some of them very well. We also had a number of other commoner forest birds including Brambling, Redwing and Nutcracker. Next stop was the sea where a lot of birds would be new for someone from a land locked alpine country. Kittikwake, Razorbill, Guillemot, Red-throated Diver, Red-breasted Merganser and Eider were all noted and most seen well.

Today I tried the fjord hoping that there might be something interesting to find on a much flatter sea than lately. The only bird of real interest I saw was a very distant tern (any would be good in November) which looked to be a Common but was just too distant to be certain. Grozzas continued to entertain in Maridalen but the most unexpected sighting was a Guillemot sitting on a wet road in the forest just after a heavy rain shower. The wet road had probably looked like water and the bird had decided to pitch down but without help it was a gonna as they cannot take off from flat land. I didn’t have the time to take it to the sea so released it on Maridalsvannet where it seemed to have a lot of energy (see video) so will hopefully reorientate itself and survive.