Regular Oslo birding this week

Birding in Oslo isn’t just Sibes and owls and there are more normal birds to look at and enjoy. A large arrival of Waxwings is brewing although so far most birds I have seen have been flocks hurrying over. There seems to be lots of berries around though so once the birds settle down then I am sure there will be lots of urban birds to enjoy.

Maridalen has been rather quiet with a Great Grey Shrike appearing in many different parts of the valley signalling that food is difficult to find. On the lake there have been quiet a few wind blown Guillemots and amongst them I picked out a Razorbill which is only the third record in the Dale. Nocturnal trips have revealed a few Woodcock although numbers are declining with birds presumably continuing their southbound migration.

I have been out looking for owls twice more but with disappointing results. A trip with Jr and the Beast gave two Tawny Owls but a trip with Jack drew a complete blank which lends some weight to the saying that “a Jack a day keeps the birds away” 😉

Østensjøvannet is normally a productive place in October and there are lots of birds this year but it is a very different make up to the last few years when there has been a lot of water weed which has attracted three figure flocks of Coot, Mute Swan and Wigeon. This year there seems to have been a complete die back of the water weed and the lake is nearly free of the above species with for example only single figures of Coot! Fish eating species however are in higher numbers especially Herons and Cormorants. The commonest birds though are geese which are feeding on a stubble feed and in total there are close to 1000 Barnacle, Greylag and Canada Geese although surprisingly enough nothing scarce amongst them.

Fornebu is very quiet with visits this week revealing nothing of note with colder temperatures and overnight frosts having pushed warblers and pipits onwards.

A trip to Årnestangen was also disappointing although 9 Taiga Bean Geese with Greylags was as always a nice encounter and a small flock of Twite was my first of the autumn.

this young Goshawk (hønsehauk) was a delight at Østensjøvannet today and was respectfully escorted out of the area by the local Hooded Crows. Its large size indicates it is a female

a Jackdaw (kaie) also got in on the act

when the geese at Østensjøvannet take to the wing it is an impressive sight and sound

The only Mute Swans (knoppsvane) are breeding birds that haven't left yet. The young in this family are still far from full grown and seem to have developed slowly due to the shortage of food. In addition there are 3 orphaned young (the dad was found dead and mum just disappeared) which are also not yet able to fly and a single adult that had apparantly crashed with overhead wires

a redhead Smew (lappfiskand) - one of two at Østensjøvannet

Twite (bergisisk) at Årnestangen

a Razorbill (alke) on Maridalsvannet

and the valley's Great Grey Shrike (varsler) hovering as it looks for food

a Tawny Owl (kattugle) perched on a wire in the Dale. 

and a Woodcock (rugde)

last week I sea gazed at Krokstrand. There wasn't much to see (what did I really expect) except for a flock of 95 Kittikwakes (krykje) that suddenly appeared heading north at height