Surprises

What’s better than one Hume’s Warbler?  Two??

On Friday a Hume’s was found at Fornebu 1km away and 30 minutes after I had last seen the «regular» bird. No one dared say it was a second bird but observations over the weekend confirmed that the Two Bird Theory was a reality. And if that wasn’t enough two tristis Chiffchaffs were seen together. Temperatures were not rising above -5C, there was snow on the ground and 4 phyllosc (2 extremely rare) were somehow surviving!!!

 I didn’t visit Fornebu at the weekend but on Monday was unable to find the new bird. I was also guiding for a couple of hours with the goal of finding rare warblers and Beardies at Fornebu. This we achieved with distinction with the original Hume’s showing very easily and at least 15 Beardies showing at point blank range. After my guiding duties were finished I spent a lot of time trying to find Hume’s #2 without joy and then some time again at Hume’s #1 getting annoyed with toggers blasting out calls from their phones…

 Today was an even more wintery day with snow in the air but after quite a bit of searching Hume’s #1 gave itself up and I saw the two tristis together (they have been much harder to find than the Hume’s and I have not heard them call whereas the Hume’s does call every now and again).

 

Will the Hume’s survive into the New Year? And will we find anything else??

Hume's Warbler (blekbrynsanger) 9.12 in cloudy conditions making the bird look quite green

in sun on 12.12 looking very grey and brown

today in overcast conditions just looking dark

the two tristis

a photogenic Goldfinch (stillits) today when the sun briefly shone

female Bearded Tit (skjeggmeis) with its legs spread

the flock frequently dropped down from the reed tops but I am unsure what exactly they were doing on the ground - eating snow or find fallen seeds?

13 in one picture

a ringed male and female which are probably from a group of 5 that were blinged at Fornebu on 5.11

the best pictures I could get of the ring on a female (not the same female as above due to different plumage on head).

Østensjøvannet on Friday when a flock of Coot (sothøne) and Mute Swans (knoppsvane) were keeping a tiny area of water ice free

surprisingly this adult Great Crested Grebe (toppdykker) was also amongst them

the swans were very restless as it was obviously dawning on them that it was time to leave and find an alternative site to spend the winter.