Mid Jan

After 3 very cold days but with only a small amount of snow we then had a day with LOTS of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday whilst temperatures rose to +/- zero. Thursday was cold again although at only -5C was a relative joy to be out in but today, Friday, the forecast is for the mercury to rise over zero and lots of RAIN. Welcome to icy pavements and roads and hell on earth…

This week I have mostly been looking for snipes, rails and owls and succeeding to a good extent. Jack Snipe, Water Rail and Pygmy Owl have shown well, Common Snipe has been seen briefly but a Great Grey Owl in Maridalen has only been heard about via via but if the record is genuine then both myself and a number of others would appear to have been very close to it whilst being oblivious to its presence. Hopefully it is genuine and is refound although I so no evidence of rodents so cannot see that it will hang around one particular area for long.

I have spent a lot of time trying to film Jack Snipe feeding but that has proven very difficult and merits its own post.

A trip to Huk, Bygdøy revealed nothing unexpected except for a female Pintail feeding in the rock pools which rather surprisingly is my first record here. Three different female (but no male) Pintails have been seen in Oslo this winter – one at Østensjøvannet and upto two at Bestumkilen/Vækerø. In the last couple of weeks though only a single bird has been reported at Vækerø so whether the Huk bird was one of the other two or another bird is difficult to say.

Maridalen on Wednesday after all the snow but before the rain

the Pygmy Owl (spruveugle) has become more reliable again. Here it looks as though it is searching the ground for mice but otherwise it clearly had its eyes on birds at the feeding station

one of upto three Water Rails (vannrikse) wintering in Oslo

the open water that attracts Water Rails and snipe also often attracts Robins (rødstrupe) and Wrens

the min cruise ferry from Kiel arriving in Oslo on Thursday morning as seen from Huk. Purple Sandpipers were on the rocks and a few Velvet Scoter and Eider were diving for food. The female Pintail can be seen swimming left

the female Pintail (stjertand) feeding in the rock pools

one of six Purple Sandpipers (fjæreplytt)

the Pygmy Owl in Maridalen on Thursday. It is always easier to find it when it perches on top of a tree. Just after I took the picture it vanished but I then suddenly heard an explosion of noise from a flock of Long-tailed Tits that I had previously not been aware of so I assume it went for one of them

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

The sound of the small flock. They were still very excited a couple of minutes after they exploded into life

and my continued "hunt" for a video of one of these feeding will get its own post sometime soon

A rarity!

This autumn has seen a very significant irruption of various tits into Norway. The timing and size of the irruptions is easiest to see by looking at numbers at coastal areas with good coverage with Lista Bird Observatory being a perfect place. Coal Tits were the first obvious arrival already at the end of August and peaking in the first week of September and which I witnessed when I was there. Blue and Willow Tits followed with a peak at the end of September and even Great Tits were clearly on the move. Long-tailed Tits came later with a peak in the middle of October.

Even around Oslo it has been easy to detect the irrupting birds with Coal, Blue and Long-tailed Tits especially obvious. I also reckon that the Marsh Tits that have turned up in Maridalen may well be associated with the irruption of the other species even if none have been registered at Lista.

It is easy to assume that all these birds have come from the north east but records of Long-tailed Tits with stripy heads of the continental race europaeus show that birds have also come from the south or south east. The white-headed race caudatus that we get in Norway is also the race that occurs east and then south east into Russia with the two races meeting and intergrading, in Poland.

Prior to 2025 there are only two accepted records of the race europaeus in Norway although there have been birds showing some characters of this race (the head stripe is not well marked enough especially around the eye) including this bird I had in Maridalen in 2016 (and which probably bred) but which are perhaps best to treat as intergrades between the two races. So far in 2025 there have been another 6-7 records with the first two on 12th October. There is some debate as to whether these birds have dark and wide enough head stripes (as well as other plumage features) to be classified as "pure" europaeus or whether they are best considered as intergrades. I do not feel qualified to pronounce on this and it is no easy decision to make but that is something that NSKF, the rarities committee will have to pronounce on. Pure or intergrades though they do show that these birds originate on the other side of the Baltic. I have checked Swedish records this autumn and rather surprisingly there have been few records in Sweden of pure birds however there have been a record number of birds reported as intergraes (an option not available in Norway).

Ever since I saw the first records on 12 October I have been trying to check every flock of LtTs I come across for birds with stripy heads. It is not an easy task as there have been lots of LtTs this autumn and also they are so quick moving that it is difficult to grill every bird. I have not seen a hint of a stripe until yesterday when amongst a flock of about 8 birds in Maridalen I saw one with stripes. Getting photos of it was more challenging and I actually think there may have been more than one bird but I did get a couple of photos of one bird which has well marked head stripes although I am sure I saw an even better marked bird. I hoped to find the flock again today but had no joy and believe these immigrant flocks are still moving around.

A Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis) that has come from a long way to the east or south east

I am not sure if this out of focus shot is of the same bird or perhaps of another in the same flock

a Redwing (rødvingetrost) was a surprise at the end of November in a year with no berries. The white marks on the tips of the tertials show it to be a 1cy bird (born this year)

it did find a (frozen) worm but will not survive long unless it heads south

Good end to the month

The last day of October was surprisingly good in Maridalen and I added 3 species to my Oslo 2025 year list. With 178 species so far 2025 is a completely average year (at least according to my eBird stats) but is way behind last years record haul.

First up was a flyover Parrot Crossbill. There are as good as no Common Crossbills left in Oslo’s forests so any crossbill is a good bird at the moment and get perhaps more attention than it would have last year.

Second up was a real Oslo rarity and one I didn’t see last year – Marsh Tit. A pair had been seen on Sunday so I have had them on my radar but it was first today that I heard their characteristic pitchuu call and then got to see them (they look very similar to the far commoner Willow Tits and call is by far the easiest way to tell the two species apart). They didn’t hang around for long as they continued on their travels looking for food but will hopefully be here all winter and maybe breed next year. Marsh Tit is a proper and surprising rarity in Oslo despite there being established populations only a few kilometres beyond the county line in for example Lørenskog. These are only my third record in Oslo after a bird at Østensjøvannet in October 2017 and then a bird that spent the winter of 2018/19 in Maridalen at the exact same spot where I saw today’s birds. It does look like the species was commoner in Oslo in the past although I can find only a single breeding record from 2000 but there is also a big problem interpreting the many undocumented reports many of which I would suggest should be accompanied by a helping of salt. On that note though I do have to admit that my attempt to document today’s sighting was extremely poor and is barely a record shot. My excuses are that I was walking the Beast and only had the superzoom but most embarrassingly I have now found out that the (good) video I thought I had taken which included the call does not exist because in time honoured fashion I clearly only pressed the record button when I was finished so have some useless video as the camera swung from shoulder….

The current birds could of course just have wandered from one of the close populations but given that all other species of tit are irrupting this year then it would be no surprise if Marsh Tits are also on the move so these could well have come from far away.

Last up and also an addition to my Norwegian 2025 lists was a female Grey-headed Woodpecker. I initially saw her quite close but had my usual series of camera problems so didn’t manage to do her justice but with luck she has already chosen to spend the winter in Maridalen and will turn up on some feeders.

the pictures I got of the Marsh Tits (løvmeis) probably do count as a record shot as the one that is in focus where the bird is looking at me does show the pale spot at the base of the upper mandible and that the back of the cheek is not white but rather creamy

my best pic of the Grey-headed 'pecker is a little bit better but hardly good

my flight shots are of their usual dismal quality but it is IDable

perched a long way away where it did also call

picture of a Jay (nøtteskrike) are much better and it is also a much smarter bird

Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis)

autumnal reflections

the Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås) is still with the Whoopers (sangsvane) but is a master at disappearing in the stubble

and here some footage of a pod of at least 5 Harbour Porpoises that I saw in the fjord whilst auk watching on Wednesday

a Harbour Porpoise (nise)

and 5 of them that just floated on the surface for a few seconds

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Still too nice

Cloudless nights mean that there are fewer and fewer birds every day, or at least that is how it seems.

Encounters with Jack Snipe, Bearded Tit and Siberian tristis Chiffchaffs have been the highlights of the last few days as a wing bar or two continues to elude me.

Singe pairs of Bearded Tits are in two reedbeds at Fornebu but are for the most past very low down and are I believe still feeding on insects. They call loudly only very occasionally and it seems to be when they have lost contact with each other. Today I had a pair feeding in reeds just 3-4 metres from me for a good 15 minutes and it was possible to hear very, very quiet calls which I assume were to make sure they stayed together but they were incredibly difficult to see until they perched on a reed just over the ground for a couple of minutes and preened. They were only two metres away but were almost impossible to see let alone photograph.

I have had upto two Jack Snipe but lack of observations from day to day suggests to me that these are new birds that are moving through and just stopping for a day before continuing.

My best views of Beardies were on Wednesday when there was thick fog

a Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) in the open

droppings and bill marks in mud are a good sign that snipe are around

this Jack was much better hidden. Can you see him?

should be easier in this picture

there are a lot of Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis) around this autumn and flocks move through very quickly

a ringed Siberian tristis Chiffchaff at Fornebu yesterday. A quite classic individual that was also heard calling

it was together with this unblinged bird

the lone 1cy Whooper Swan (sangsvane) is still at Fornebu. It loosely associates with Mute Swans but is often alone

And a trip to Østensjøvannet gave some photographic birds

male Mallard (stokkand)

young Moorhen (sivhøne)

female Pintail (stjertand)

Shoveler (skjeand)

side by side with a Mallard

and a late Adder (hoggorm). This was very small and I believe hatched this year