Winter blues

My lack of blogging can be blamed on a lack of new birds to write about. January is not a month when you expect many surprises or new arrivals but this year it has been exceptionally quiet. There are just very few birds around Oslo. There are hardly any finches, the fjord has very few birds (and is now frozen over), raptors and owls are very scarce and it is getting so desperate that I am considering a visit to the recycling plant to look for gulls….

That said, the “cool but sensitive species” I mentioned previously has taken up much of my time but as it looks like it may have moved on now so I may be able to post about it soon.

The Bearded Tits are still around and the largest flock have been attracting insane numbers of photographer as they feed by a footpath in a 5 meter wide reedbed. The Hawk Owl has been also been surrounded by photographers whenever it is a sunny day and some clowns have taken to throwing out (dead) mice on fishing lines and reeling it in to get the “ultimate” photo…..

The weather these last two weeks has been very variable but we have hd some lovely days with new snow and no wind

the trees in the forest have also been laden with snow and apart from walking on prepared ski tracks (a criminal offence in Norway) it is not easy getting about

moose have become more obvious with the deeper snow forcing them out of the forest

there are very few Redpolls (gråsisik) around and this one was suitably pale to seserve a second look

sunset at Fornebu

Two Little Grebes (dvergdykker) in Oslo

Tufted Duck (toppand) in a red sea due to reflections from shipping container

Goldfinch (stillits)

Grey Heron (hegre) which are scarce now with most waterways being frozen

singing male Hawfinch (kjernebiter)

Reed Bunting (sivspurv)

And now an obscenely large number of Bearded Tit pictures as I think back lighting is cool...😀 And if you make it to the bottom there a are a couple of videos of them feeding