Kingfisher showing well

It's still very dark and damp but the temperature is slowly falling and from the weekend is forecast to be minus temperatures both night and day. Maridalsvannet continues to host the same birds and the Greylag is still there so did not get eaten by the Goshawk. When the lake starts to freeze it will be interesting to see how long the water birds hang on for.

My thermal camera has revealed both Jack Snipe and Woodcock but these may well be my last for a while if a freeze sets in. A Kingfisher showed very well at Fornebu today where the lone male Bearded Tit seems to be set to spend the winter and a handful of Reed Buntings were very late and may also be intending to spend the winter.

I have spent quite a lot of time looking for owls but have only got as far as spotting the post that the Facebook Great Grey Owl was filmed on.

Kingfisher (isfugl). A nearly all black bill with a pale tip points to it being a male born this year

a fluffed up Reed Bunting (sivspurv)

2 of them

male Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis)

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Woodcock (rugde)

Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

Hoping for owls

Despite xmas decorations being up in shopping centres and my inbox full of black Friday/week “super” offers there is still over a month of 2022 left and the chance of some good birding remains. There are definite signs that a small invasion of the larger owls is brewing. Reports are that this winter is a cyclical low winter for rodents in areas of Hedmark and after a good breeding year for owls in the same areas there are a good number of owls that now need to move out to find food.

After the Oslo Ural Owl it has now emerged one was seen much further away from the breeding areas in Telemark (west side of Oslo fjord) and there are now a few reports of Great Grey Owls in the south east including one on an island in the Oslo fjord and most excitingly one videoed on a mobile phone in Maridalen last weekend! A Hawk Owl has also turned up close to Oslo feeding from roadside wires which is a sure sign of food shortages in the normal areas. In the fantastic winter of 2019/2020 the first Great Grey Owl was not found in Maridalen until 15 December and Hawk Owls were not found until mid January so there is still every chance that this winter could be an Oslo owl winter.

Whilst I wait for this happen (and of course search for them) then Maridalen has had some surprises despite the depressingly dark and damp weather. Last week ended with both Great Crested Grebe and Red-throated Diver on the lake. The diver is the latest ever record there and there have only been a couple of later records of the grebe. The Whooper Swans and Greylag are also hanging on although the Greylag possibly fell victim to a Goshawk (see pictures).

I spotted the Goshawk at a range of around 2km and was unsure whether it was a Goshawk or a large falcon

but it hung around long enough for me to get close and revealed itself to be a large (female) adult Goshawk (hønsehauk). I think it is a gull it is eating but there are a lot of white downy feathers and this is where I last saw the Greylag earlier in the day

a couple of late Common Scoters (svartand) were also noteworthy

the Great Grey Shrike (varsler) is also still present and wandering widely

Maridalen's latest ever Red-throated Diver (smålom)

the forest has been quiet but an encounter with a Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) always makes it worthwhile

Great Grey Shrike

The last three days have been very wintery in Oslo and it has not been very birdy but a Great Grey Shrike has twice shown very well by the road in Maridalen. It was clearly looking for rodents on the ground and has given me some of my very best ever views of this normally shy species.

Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

the wing bar shows this to be a 1cy

it seemed to be an extremely long tailed individual

winter in the forest

and looking towards the lake. The stubble fields were where the Woodcocks were last week but I suspect they have all moved on now

Jæren 2022

Firecrest (rødtoppfuglekonge)

Three days birding in Jæren including an early birders christmas dinner with 17 like minded folk was good for the body and soul.

We had lovely blue skies and with winds from the east and the first heavy frost of the autumn Kjell was expecting a number of exciting birds to be pushed out to the coast. That wasn’t the case though and we found no rare wheatears or pipits but there was a large arrival of geese with many White-fronts and a few Tunda Beans alongside Pink-feets.

Rarest passerine was a Firecrest that we found and three different Stonechat was a sure sign that they have had a good year. I saw both Long- and Short-eared Owls, Hen Harrier and Rough-legged Buzzard. On the sea we had fantastic close views of Great Northern Divers and a single Little Auk was my first of the year.

But was really strikes you with a trip to Jæren is the sheer number of birds. In addition to lots of geese the fields host large flocks of Starlings, thrushes and Lapwings and along the coast there were loads of ducks including a huge flock of 2000 Wigeon. Scanning this flock hoping to find American Wigeon revealed an incredibly smart Gadwall x Mallard hybrid. It was not a variety of this very variable hybird that I have seen pictures of before but I think the parentage must be right.

I am writing this on the plane home on my phone and I see that the pictures have been uploaded in a very random order so please forgive me.

Dark-belliwd Brent Goose (ringgås)

Tundra Bean Geese (tundrasædgås)

White-fronted Geese (tundragås)

The Gadwall x Mallrd hybrid (snadderand x stokkand) showing leg colour

Great Northern Divers (islom)

Dunlin (myrsnipe)

The hybrid duck

Parrot Crossbills (furukorsnebb)

Hybrid duck

White-fronted and a few Greylag Geese (and possibly others)

Male Stonechat (svartstrupe)

The only shot I got showing some of the wing pattern of the hybrid duck

Female Stonechat

Great Northern Diver still mostly in summer plumage

Hybrid duck

Wigeon (brunnakke)

A very late Northern Wheatear (steinskvett)

A heavily barred adult european White-fronted Goose

Little Auk (alkekonge)

The Brent Goose showing its dark belly

Great Grey Shrike (varsler) - apparantly rarer here than in Maridalen

Short-eares Owl (jordugle) - my only sighting this year

A better picture of the very smart hybrid Gadwall x Mallard

A Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke)

Female Stonechat

Juvenile and adult Whire-fronted Geese