On Sunday an Eastern Yellow Wagtail was found at
Nordre Øyeren which is a first record for the Oslo area. I of course waited
until Monday to go look for it and of course did not see it but that is the
sign of a very good bad twitcher, of which I am one. I do however have a
picture showing the piles of rotting corn where it was successfully twitched by the good good twitchers the day before…
Today I dropped into Fornebu and enjoyed a flock of
10 Bearded Tits feeding in the reeds at close range and that is pretty much all
I have to report since my last post except that it had got bitingly cold now
and I really should start wearing gloves and a hat (I have stopped wearing
shorts at least).
8 of the 10 Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis)
the Maridalen Great Grey Shrike (varsler)
and a post at the moment wouldn't be complete without at least one pic of a Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)
female Teal (krikkand). There is always a bird or two wintering a Fornebu and always females. The same birds year after year?
a trip out on Sunday night to look for the Northern Lights revealed only a very bright and very nearly full moon
Birds always have the capacity to surprise and that
is of course one of the main reasons why I and many others (including I guess
everyone who reads this blog) find birding to be an extremely rewarding hobby/obsession.
The last weeks birding was settling into a quite
predictable pattern with generally few birds but the occasional encounter with
Great grey Shrike, Pygmy Owl or Grey-headed Woodpecker livening things up. On
Wednesday I was tempted out of Oslo when strong southerly winds had me sea gazing.
The winds weren’t that strong and it is late in the year so I did not have high
hopes but did expect to see Little Auk which used to be a regular late autumn
guest in Oslo but which has suddenly become difficult to see in the last few
year (probably just due to changing weather patterns than a decline in the species).
A few Razorbills and Guillemots flew by but nothing smaller although further
south good numbers of Little Auks were seen and also 3 Grey Phalaropes so my
thoughts were correct but the wind just not strong enough.
But what was the surprise? Well,
yesterday I had dropped Jr Jr and a friend off at the ski slopes for their
first outing of the winter and then dropped into Maridalen. I always stop first
at Hammeren to check out what is on the lake. Ice is starting to form in some
of the bays but the main part of the lake is still open not that this means
there are many birds. Cormorant, a couple of Goldeneye and the single Common
Scoter are all I have been seeing and counting the Cormorants has been the most
exciting thing to do. I have had up to 7 resting on a few exposed rocks but as I
looked at those rocks yesterday there was only a single bird and it wasn’t a
Cormorant but an adult White-tailed Eagle! I quickly got back in the car and
drove closer where I saw there were already a couple of people watching it. W-t
Eagle has become an annual guest to the Dale but normally a wandering young
bird flying over. In the last few years though there have been occasional
sightings of an adult both over Maridalen and around the islands in the inner
Oslo fjord. This is probably a bird that has settled here and it could even be
possible that there is a pair already breeding as they are surprisingly
anonymous in the breeding season.
adult White-tailed Eagle (havørn) when I first saw it on the Cormorant rocks
a Cormorant (storskarv) did come into land but thought better of it
I wonder if the two dark patches in the tail will make it possible to individually identify this bird
one of two Pygmy Owls (spurveugle) I have been seeing. The noises that I occasionally hear make me believe this is a male
whereas this bird which is the one I see most often is I am sure a female
an adult male Goshawk (hønsehauk) that was displaying
this is a good winter for Redpolls (gråsisik) with some large flocks that occasionally contain the odd Lesser or Arctic. This Lesser Redpoll (brunsisik) though was on its own in a forest habitat where I was not expecting to find one
Monday and Tuesday were spent exclusively in
Maridalen and were very successful. The variety of birds is not enormous with
only 37 species chalked up but when they include great views of Grey-headed
Woodpecker, Pygmy Owl and Great Grey Shrike then I at least am not complaining.
I
had both the Grey-headed ‘peckers and one was seen feeding on fat balls and the
other on apples highlighting again that they are not your run of the mill
woodpecker.
I
also had Pygmy Owls at 2 different which showed ridiculously closely and looking at my photos I think it was the same bird that had moved nearly a kilometre. I
finally saw one with a mouse and I am sure this is a first for me despite
having watched the species for many tens of hours over the years. Thinking
about it, the only times I have previously witnessed any owls capturing food
are a couple of times with both Great Grey Owl and Hawk Owl.
The
mouse today was deposited in an old Great Spotted Woodpecker hole (most
recently used by nesting Starlings) and the owl was straight out hunting again.
The
Great Grey Shrike is easily the most trusting individual of the species I have
seen and perched in the sunshine preening whilst I stood underneath it. The
bird is an adult and could therefore quite likely be a bird that has wintered
in the Dale before and therefore got used to being close to people.
Be warned that there are quite a few pictures 😀👇
not the closest picture I took of one of the Grey-headed Woodpeckers (gråspett) but my favourite
here looking for insects in cavities in a telegraph pole
the red feathers visible on the crown
and inspecting cavities in a tree
using its tongue
again on a barn. You will see this same barn in my Pygmy Owl pictures lower down
eating an apple
and eating fat balls
Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) with a mouse!
searching for food from the same barn that the pecker also visited
a selfie with a Pygmy
and from another angle (photo Glenn Martin)
on the roof top. The hearing is amazing. At one point it flew 30m after hearing a mouse behind it and immediately went into hunt mode low down in a bush
as you see here. It was leaning so far forward ready to drop down on a mouse that it looked as though it would lose its balance
this was the second owl I found which was hunting in a more natural terrain
heard something
look at those claws
all fluffed up
with an angry Nuthatch (spettmeis)
and some angry Yellowhammers (gulspurv)
decorating a christmas tree Norwegian style
the owl suddenly adopted this alert posture when a flock of Redpolls started mobbing it. Note the ears and how thin it looks
Great Grey Shrike (varsler) preening in the sun
there were some other birds such as this Black Woodpecker (svartspett)
and the long staying Common Scoter (svartand)
and a Treecreeper (trekryper) feeding on the same fat balls as the G-h pecker
every now and again I am inspired to take a photo that isn't of birds
