Little Grebes

I was looking back at sightings in November from previous years and have confirmed my impression that November 2017 is a particularly poor month. There are very low numbers of all species and no special species have arrived. All this is contributing to a mild case of birders depression for yours truly.

Yesterday I had a nice little episode with Bearded Tits at Fornebu whereby I could hear them giving their very quiet contact call and realised they must only be metres away from me in the reeds but it took me ages to see them low down and behaving more like mice than birds.

Today I decided to head out of Oslo and check out the Drøbak area. This normally quick journey now takes twice as long due to work on tunnels (Norway the masters of tunnel construction have been informed by the EU (of whom they are not a member) that their tunnels do not meet safety requirements which has caused a huge program of upgrading n tunnels across the land). Along the way I stopped to look for Kingfishers at their frequently used wintering locality in Bunnefjorden but didn’t find any.

At the marina at Husvik three Little Grebes showed incredibly well as they dived for food close offshore. They caught a number of small fish whilst I watched and this area has overwintering birds annually. It is a bit of a mystery as to where they come from as there are incredibly few breeding records of this species in Norway let alone the Oslo area but it might well be that the species is overlooked in the breeding season rather than them being long distance migrants.

A young Common Seal was hauled out on a pontoon and a flock of 100 Common Eiders were feeding on mussels in the marina but otherwise there was little to see here. A bit further south a flock of 54 Velvet Scoter was a good local count and I had a hope of finding something rarer amongst them but will have to keep hoping.

A stop at Østensjøvannet on the way home revealed a young male Wigeon that was very keen to eat bread. This bird is ringed and apparently got the bling here a few days ago but for some reason this has not been reported. The local council has hung up signs telling people not to feed the birds here. This is a reaction to some people dumping enormous amounts of mouldy bread and pizza bases. This behaviour clearly needed to be addressed but the signs and unfortunate statements from the misguided leader of the local bird club (basically saying that by giving ducks bread that you are harming them) has left people feeling like criminals for feeding the ducks which has resulted in fewer people coming with food. Luckily though there are enough sensible people that ignore the signs and the wildfowl that choose to winter here are getting food. Judging by their eagerness today though they are only just getting enough and a group of 20 Feral Pigeons were also getting in on the action. They were clever enough to realise they had no chance against the ducks once the food was on the ground so were landing on people to take the food out of the hand. I decided to get in on the action and manged some selfies with the pigeons. Not quite the same as a selfie with a Hawkie but fun none the less.

selfie with two feral pigeons

and in true Attenborough style here is the secret behind the making of the selfie (photo Håvard Klemsdal)

Little Grebes (dvergdykker)

Roe Deer

young Common/Harbour Seal (steinkobbe)

1st winter male Wigeon (brunnakke)

female Bearded Tit from yesterday

and male

A little bit here, and a little bit there

Today was another day of cold temperatures and no wind but from tomorrow evening we will see a new weather front coming in from the south with cloud and even the possibility of plus temperatures next week. Oslo is suffering a lot from air pollution due to the cold air and lack of wind which apparently creates a “lid” over the city and keeps all the pollution inside and from high up one can see a layer of smog lying over the city.

Today I explored the bay at Holtekilen which is an area of Fornebu which receives very little attention but can probably hold some good birds occasionally. I was hoping to refind yesterday’s Kingfisher but failed in that errand even though there are areas of open water holding some ducks and even a Grey Heron. In Storøykilen I saw tracks of Water Rail and heard a Wren so there is still some life in the reedbed.

The fjord is now starting to freeze over and off Bygdøy is completely frozen although I doubt thick enough yet for people to walk on it. I hoped this would cause concentrations of ducks on the few open areas which had happened but these were mostly Mallards with over 500 birds with just smaller numbers of Goldeneyes and Tufted Ducks and nothing more exciting.

Oslo’s wintering Peregrine has been difficult to pin down so far this winter but seems now to have settled down to its traditional look out post on the Plaza Hotel and I saw it there today.

I had itchy feet today and also visited Østensjøvannet where there is just one area of open water with considerably fewer Mallards than before but otherwise all the usual suspects were present including 24 Coot and the deformed 1^st winter bird is still alive but looking in very poor shape. I know that people are making sure that it gets food but suspect that a bread diet will not be enough for this poor creature which should perhaps be allowed to let nature take its toll.

The Peregrine (vandrefalk) at some distance



there was also a close encounter with Waxwings (sidensvans) today with rosehips on the menu

this Grey Heron at Fornebu was looking for food amongst the cracks in the ice where presumably there was some open water

this dead Herring Gull (gråmåke) by the roadside at Østensjøvannet had frozen solid in its death throws

the (now ringed of course) female Pintail (stjertand) at Østensjøvannet



the Wigeon x Mallard hybrid

these two coots have very different feet. The bird on the left is an adult whereas the ringed bird is a 1st winter which explains the different colouration but the marked size difference is down to sex. The larger feet belong to a male

the deformed young Coot is, despite being in terrible condition,still alive

it can actually flap its wings

beautiful eye colour



a group of Feral Pigeons drank from the edge of the ice and then despite the temperature jumped in for a quick bath

the Oslo Fjord looking south from Fornebu

and here looking North towards Bygdøy and Oslo. This is now frozen over

sun rise over Oslo at 0855 taken from Voksenkollen

here the smog over the city can be seen

Pigeons

Saturday as usual was a day of incidental birding. After a trip to the library I persuaded Jr Jr to go for a walk through Frognerpark. On the way we walked past a large muddle of melt water where a group of Feral Pigeons were bathing in the sunshine and gave some good photo ops with the small lens I had in my back pack. Back home a Wood Pigeon (ringdue) posed well hence today being a pigeon day.

I did go out for some real birding though today after a Tundra Bean Goose (tundrasædgås) was reported on the same fields as the W-f Goose (tundragås) at Bygdøy. There was only one person reporting this species whereas everyone else was seeing just the W-f Goose and although I sensed a wild goose chase this was too important an Oslo species to ignore. When I got there there were others looking in vain for the Bean although the White-front was showing well. The fact it was a wild goose chase was confirmed in the evening when as if by magic the report of the tundrasæadgås metamorphosised into a tundragås. C'est la vie.

Feral pigeons

Wood Pigeon

a goose from the Tundra wondering what it should do with all this snow

Oslo islands

With lots of rain forecast for the end of the week I thought I would get out today. Easterly winds had me thinking I needed to be on an island. Islands work well with rare birds because of location, location, location. Therefore an island in a narrow fjord just offshore from downtown Oslo is unlikely to deliver that much.

However as I got off the boat at Gressholmen this morning and within 30 seconds had Wheatear (steinskvett) and Chiffchaff (gransanger) then you might forgive me for thinking it was game on. Well the excitement finished exactly when it started and neither the island or the sea around it had anything more of interest to offer me.

Once back on the mainland I even walked around the harbour hoping for gulls - desparate times call for desperate measures. Even here I failed but a close Guillemot (lomvi) was a small consolation. I even also visited drug dealing central but had nothing more exciting than a couple of latish LB-b Gulls (sildemåke).

Taking the Metro home fate played me a good card when i realised I was on the wrong line. Rather than just take the next Metro back I went to a small lake near the station - Smestaddammen. Here amongst the bread eating Mallards (stokkand) was a proper wild duck - a Gadwall (snadderand) and a proper Oslo rarity. It was always nervous of people and will presumably not stay longer than today although the two Teal (krikkand) alongside it are most certainly birds that spend the winter in nearby Frognerparken. The swan family that breeds on the lake consisted of a single adult and three youngsters all of which were ringed.  I wonder what has happened to the other adult? (having entered the ringing data I see that the swan family consisted of 10 birds in September so one of the adults has presumably already left with 5 of the young which seems to be interesting behaviour).

In Maridalen a pair of Whooper Swans (sangsvane) are hopefully just the first of the autumn and we can look forward to some numbers of waterfowl over the next two months.

although this Gadwall (snadderand) looks like a female the reddy brown bar in the wing is a male character so this must be a 1cy male

sparkly

Gadwall and two Teal

Two Teal and a Gadwall

Guillemot (lomvi)

this female Mallard had managed to get fishing line around its wing and in it bill - nasty

Moorhens (sivhøne)

I don't think I have photographed Feral Pigeons (bydue) before but they can be quite smart