OSLO BIRDER: Scrapping for crumbs

The title of this post was supposed to be a metaphor for searching for autumn waders in Oslo but thinking about it scrapping for crumbs would actually be more exciting.

Yesterday, Jack and I took the ferry and visited the islands. The wind was from the NNE, it was raining and the tide so low that the bay at Gressholmen was just exposed mud. Hordes of waders were as good as guaranteed….

Well of course that was not the case. Two voyeuristic passes of Fru. Galteskjær gave a single Common Sand on the second pass. Fru. Gressholmen’s muddy delights had NO waders but Lindøya gave us a Ringed Plover, 4 Oystercatchers and a Common Sand. There was a highlight but we only realised once I was back home in front of the PC.

When approaching Bleikøya we had seen a wader at very long range and I pointed the camera and shot and prayed. As we got closer we found first one and then two Common Sands in the same area so assumed this was what we had originally seen. Zooming in on the very grainy photos on the PC though shows we had originally «seen» a Turnstone - my third and Jack’s first in Oslo.

Maridalen has in fact been possibly even better for waders the last few days. On Friday a Golden Plover flew over, and today there was a Dunlin, 5 Snipe and a Common Sand. The Dunlin is only my second ever here and had found a very thin bit of mud to spankulerer on.

There are close to 600 Greylags in the valley and one carries a neck collar showing it to have been ringed in Mid Norway and to spend the winters in Holland.

With it being so wet there have been few raptors showing themselves although today I had my first Merlin of the autumn.