Most interest at Fornebu

Maridalen on Sunday revealed nothing of interest and it has been equally quiet both yesterday and today although there has been a notable increase in thrush numbers as birds are clearly moving towards the coast. Fieldfares dominate with Redwing and Blackbirds less than 10% of the total and Song Thrushes seem to be gone already.

Storm force winds from the south yesterday prompted me to sea gaze from Huk but despite lots of wind and white tips to the waves the only bird to suggest a movement was my first Razorbill of the autumn.

Fornebu has had a bit more to offer although it is the same variety each time with Kingfisher, Little Grebes and up to 4 Jack Snipe topping the bill and my first Waxwings of the autumn today. A Shoveler on Sunday was actually my first EVER there and a near adult White-tailed Eagle today was nice and may be a bird that is prospecting for a breeding territory in the area. With the Shoveler I have now seen 227 species at Fornebu compared to the 212 I have in Maridalen.

my first ever Shoveler (skjeand) at Fornebu

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) at Fornebu. A 4th or 5th year bird I reckon. The head looks adult like but it still has black tips to the tail feathers

Common Crossbills (grankorsnebb) are still numerous but there have been no more sightings of Two-barred around Oslo

there were lots of Fieldfare (gråtrost) moving through today including this bird with leucism

a Hawfinch (kjernebiter) in a near leave less apple tree. Frosts and lots of wind has meant that most trees have suddenly lost their leaves over just the last couple of days

spot the Kingfisher (isfugl)

here it is a slightly close range. Two birds have been ringed at Fornebu this autumn but this male (all black bill) looks to lack bling

an impressive Roe Deer buck

I've saved the snipe to last😇 Here a Common (enkeltbekkasin)

and of course some Jack (kvartbekk)

not a bird in sight but a surfer on some sort of electrically propelled board

Nothing new

It has remained cold with northerly winds so no new migrants have arrived in Maridalen and the Lapwings have gone presumably as far south as they need to find soft mud to probe in.

There has been a good congregation of Skylarks (now up to 45) and Snow Buntings (17) though which have proven to be experts at hiding themselves away.

On Sunday I had to visit Jessheim and was able to make up for that forgettable experience by going on a wild goose chase and finding the Taiga Beans again. This time the flock numbered 108 including 2 collared birds and nearby a pair was associating with Whooper Swans and I wonder whether these were “vagrant” birds from a different breeding area.

The weather is forecast to change from Wednesday with southerly winds and plus temperatures so we should get a small rush of migrants and my money is on a Red Kite gracing the Dale.

Snow Buntings (snøspurv) in flight

part of Taiga Bean Goose flock

the whole flock

and the pair associating with Whooper Swans

a visit to Fornebu revealed the continued presence of Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) although all apart from this female were feeding on the ground and only giving their presence away through frequent calling

The GGS still shows well in the Dale

Roe Deer on Maridalsvannet. The ice is still very thick but I would not feel safe walking on it

Little Auk

Little Auks have been difficult birds to see around Oslo the last few years. Previously I would consider it an expected species in late autumn/early winter but a lack of southerly storms at this season has not seen many birds being blown in the last few years. I did not see one at all last year in Oslo so when a bird was found offshore downtown at the weekend and was still there yesterday then I had to go look for it. It was a particularly confiding bird that had a clear clockwise circuit that it followed and would regularly dive long distances. It would also swim underneath the edge of the dock making it at times impossible to see although one could be standing on top of it.

Otherwise, we have quite a bit of snow which is very scenic but has, especially in Maridalen, resulted in birds seemingly disappearing and birds can be few and far between.

Little Auk (alkekonge) - it came a bit too close!

it would swim around the edge of a bay and then cross back over to the otherside

before swimming under the docking

and would occasionally pop into view but would always continue its clockwise circuit

before suddenly revealing itself on the otherside

there are still quite a few Waxwings (sidensvans) about

I bumped into the adult (ringed) Wigeon (brunnakke) again today

there are still 10 Bearded Tits (skjeggmeis) at Fornebu and there are at least 7 in this picture

a Roe Deer in a snowy Maridalen. I had 5 mammal species today, with in addition Red Squirrel, Fox, Common Seal and a Dolphin sp

It's been wet!

This last week has been a wet one! Southeastern Norway has been hit by the extreme weather “Hans” and it really has rained a lot and there has been a lot of flooding. Nordre Øyeren is over 2 metres higher than normal and all of Årnestangen is under water with the birding platform just above the water. This of course means no mudlfats or waders and it may also mean that the whole autumn wader season there is washed out as it will take a long time for water levels to fall again. The floods do seem to have pushed Great White Egrets out from hidden feeding areas as three birds suddenly appeared.

After the rains stopped a visit to Maridalen was suddenly very autumnal with the first Yellow Wagtails and a Bluethroat and a lot of Whinchats. A juvenile Cuckoo was also a less than annual sighting here.

There has been very little weather suitable for butter or dragonfly watching but on Thursday it was sunny and a visit to Fornebu gave a number of sightings of Brown Hairstreaks plus the final two butterflies that I thought I had a chance of seeing this year – Wall Brown and Painted Lady (there have been very few in Norway this year) which takes me to 61 species for the year.

Otherwise my time has been spent following up on two late, scarce breeding birds which I will of course write about later in the autumn.

Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) and Cuckoo (gjøk) in Maridalen. This picture shows just how alike the two species are and why they confuse both birds and birders alike

and with a Swallow (låvesvale)

the Cuckoo. This bird is a juvenile (the adults are long gone) and as the species has become very rare as a breeding bird around Oslo has most likely come from further north

a distant view of a Great White Egret (egretthegre)

young Bluethroat (blåstrupe) still with a few juvenile feathers

on young birds that lack blue on the throat it is the red on the tail that is the most colourful part of the bird

I again saw three Ospreys (fiskeørn) together over Maridalen and they flew around for a long time. All were adults and not necessarily the same as last time as this bird does not seem to match any of the 3 in my last post 

this Roe Deer buck at Fornebu was unusually confiding but to live here they have to accept the close presence of humans

there are not many butterflies still on the wing (and 2 dasys of heavy rain would have taken its toll) but Silver-washed Fritillaries can still be found in the right places. This one looks quite fresh

but this one has wing damage and discolouration

the underside of a female Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)

and here is a male with a much duller underwing

upperwing of a male

and a female

Wall Brown (sørringvinge)

a toad (nordpadde)

young Whinchat (buskskvett) in Maridalen still with white tipped juvenile feathers

and a juvenile Whitethroat (tornsanger)

Osprey in Maridalen

a juvenile Heron flying over in Maridalen. There have been a few records of a juvenile and adults to suggest that they have bred in the Dale or somewhere very close. I am not aware of any previous breeding records in Oslo