And so it begins

Perhaps the most obvious example of viz mig that we have in Oslo is the huge numbers of Pink-footed Geese that migrate over us every spring on their long journey to Svalbard. According to the book «Guide til Fuglelivet i Oslo og Akershus» which was published in 2001 the passage occurs between mid-April and the end of May with the peak in the first two weeks of May although they note that towards the end of the 1990s larger and larger numbers were passing at the end of April. Fast forward 20 odd years and peak passage now often occurs at the end of March!

Yesterday I saw my first migrating flocks over both the house and Fornebu. Conditions here are hardly suitable for them here but I assume there were favourable winds in Denmark that encouraged them on their way.

my first Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) of the year

Today I visited the river Glomma and Pink-feet had also arrived there. I only found a handful of the Taiga Beans but did have a couple of White-fronts, a single Tundra Bean, single Barnacle and Greylags and Canada so 7 species of geese! Cranes had also arrived as had 300 Whoopers and with most fields covered in snow Skylarks were concentrated and I had a noisy flock of 200.

Surprisingly the only raptor I saw was a Sparrowhawk.

 

Back in Oslo there have been a few flocks of Whooper Swans passing over and the flood at Hengsenga is still looking mouth wateringly good. A small flock of Pink-feet were there today but best of all were two Pied Wagtails and a White Wagtail which were my 100th Oslo species of the year (a milestone I did not reach in my record year of 2019 until 29 March). One of the Pied Wags was a cracking male which I have seen only rarely in Norway.

Species 101 came a bit later with a flyover White-tailed Eagle in Maridalen. We are entering exciting times!

On Sunday I went for a 2 hour walk in the forests close to Maridalen without hearing a single owl. It was a perfect night with no wind and this complete lack of owls just shows how locally they (and rodents) are occurring this year.

male Pied Wagtail (svartryggerle)

the brown flight feathers make this a 2cy male

the male on the right and what I assume is a female Pied on the left

the assumed female. All flight feathers are black making it an adult (3cy+). The other option is that this is a intergrade between Pied and White

male Pied flying over a male White Wagtail (linerle)

White and Pied

the White Wagtail, an adult (3cy+) male by the look of things

Cranes (trane) on a still frozen Glomma river edge

the Maridalen Great Grey Shrike (varsler)

Pink-footed Geese by the flood at Bygdøy

a frosty Common Redpoll (gråsisik)

this Bean Goose, together with a Greylag is by my reckoning a Tundra due to a short neck and stubby(ish) bill but some birds are pretty impossible

Pink-footed Geese with 2 White-fronted (tundragås)

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) over Maridalen. The uneven back to the wing shows moulting and makes this a 3cy

a migrating flock of 10 adult Whooper Swans (sangsvane) that dropped into Maridalsvannet