Med Gull

The weather last 4 days has been unusual. It has been warm with a southerly wind (but often no wind at all) and lots of mist and low cloud. This has had its effect on the birds as well with hardly any to be seen or heard. We spent the weekend at the cabin at Hulvik by the fjord south of Oslo and the few times I could see over the fjord there was hardly even a gull to see.

On Friday and Monday though I did see a good gull on the sea though. On Friday I found a Mediterranean Gull offshore at Fornebu and yesterday again at Gressholmen. This is the same bird first found on 27 August at Bygdøy and then seen a couple times quite a way south in Asker. There is quite a lot of life in the fjord at the moment with clearly a lot of fish of some kind encouraging gulls and Cormorants to feeding frenzies. There has also been a record influx of Shags and I have seen up to three different individuals.

Adult Med Gull (svartehavsmåke) with Black-headed Gull (hettemåke), Herring Gull (gråmåke) and Eider (ærfugl). Gressholmen yesterday

It is in active wing moult 

and when I found it on Friday at Fornebu.

the wing moult matches the bird at Gressholmen

the black o the underwing coverts and along the edge of one of the primaries makes me wonder if this is younger adult

a late young Common Tern (makrellterne). One of 6 I saw as well as an Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne)

four of the six

the Curlew Sandpiper (tundrasnipe) at Fornebu showed much better on Friday and its legs were back as they should be so must have been covered in mud previously

Dunlin (myrsnipe)

Ringed Plover (sandlo)

3 Common Seals (steinkobbe)

Shag (toppskarv)

and another

we did get some sun at the weekend and I found this Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)

with the mist it was suddenly possible to look at the sun

and here it was almost like looking at a blood moon

a Queen of Spain Fritillary (sølvkåpe)

and a Wall (sørringvinge)