Pygmy Owls and an interesting duck

Yesterday was wet and today was misty but there are always good birds to be found in Oslo 😊

 Østensjøvannet yesterday had a Pochard which was my first in Oslo this year (and a species still to be seen in Maridalen) and an interesting Aythya which I reckon is a hybrid between Scaup and Tufted. It was no bigger than Tufted Ducks I saw it with and plumage wise looked very like a Scaup but it had a slight peak to the head feathering and when seen close up just wasn’t a Scaup. I considered Lesser Scaup but the nail on the bill was too large and when it flapped its wings the wing bar looked to be white all the way to the primaries.

The Scaup remained on Maridalsvannet and seeing this just an hour after the Østensjøvannet bird confirmed that they were not the same species.

Another nocturnal thermalling trip last night revealed a Long-eared Owl that came to check out Tengmalms playback although no Tengmalms revealed themselves and 2 Woodcock again showed on the fields in Maridalen.

Today I had 3 different Pygmy Owls in Maridalen and a couple of Three-toed Woodpeckers so will count that as a result!

the most showy of the 3 Pygmy Owls (spurveugle) in Maridalen today

it was misty today

black and white

and one of the other birds which did show in the sunshine although a bit distantly

Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin) still frequenting a roadside marsh in the Dale

Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett)

male Pochard (taffeland) at Østensjøvannet

the Scaup (bergand) showed better on Maridalsvannet

and the similar(ish) bird at Østensjøvannet that I reckon is a Scaup x Tufted Duck hybrid

here it looks VERY Scaup like with rounded head and pale patch on the cheek

but here the head shape is wrong although not qite right for Tufted either

bill is more Scaup than Tufted with a smallish nail and otherwise just dark grey

2 Little Grebes (dvergdykker) showed well

they caught fish simultaneously

First Snow

a snowy Maridalen

rowan trees full of berries

The first snow came yesterday and with it the first Waxwings! I also read in a Swedish Facebook group that Pine Grosbeaks have just started moving south there so maybe we will have a fantastic late winter autumn and early winter with rowan trees full of berries, Waxwings and Grozzas!

Despite the trees nearly collapsing under the weight of the berries there were hardly any thrushes left in Maridalen and 8 Waxwings and 30 Bramblings outnumbered them. A single Mistle Thrush was unusual though and I wonder whether it will attempt to spend the winter.

A trip to Østensjøvannet revealed around a 1000 Fieldfare feeding on playing fields and would perhaps explain why I only saw one in Maridalen. Do Fieldfares prefer worms to berries if they can choose?

The lake was also full of birds with Greylag Geese, Wigeon, Whooper Swans and Coots the most numerous. Scarcity was provided by a Scaup feeding at just a few metres range and a couple of Smew at a far greater distance. The Scaup was a 1^st winter and of the sort where you have to work a bit to convince yourself that it isn’t a female Tufted. There was also a female Tufted with a very white area around the bill that I worked hard with to convince myself it wasn’t a Lesser Scaup…

Waxwings (sidensvans) are a very welcome autumn guest

Bramblings (bjørkefink) were also eating the berries

Mistle Thrush (duetrost) together with Waxwings

a very cooperative Scaup (bergand)

I aged the bird as a 1cy female as it differed so much from the young males I saw in the mountains a couple of weeks ago (see next picture) and I noted no grey feathers in the field. But my pictures show there is one greyish feather on the the back so maybe this is also a male but much later in its moulting? Adult females are also greyish on flanks and back so the grey feather I see could also be OK for a female but I am not sure. The dark eye though would seem to be a definite sign if it being a young female.

a bird that looks like a Scaup but isn't. I considered Lesser Scaup but the bill isn't right. It is either a Tufted Duck (toppand) with a lot of white around the bill or maybe a hybrid

2 Smew (lappfiskand)

Black-throated Diver and dodgy duck

Yet another day that didn’t feel birdy but still had enough going on to keep it interesting. My first House Martin of the year was my only year tick but I did have my first Osprey for Maridalen, Willow Warblers, Three-toed pecker and an interesting female Tufted (type) Duck that may be a hybrid.

The real interest today though was what I didn’t see. First, a check on Facebook revealed a link on a Swedish site to a Finnish GPS tagged Pallid Harrier that was in Northern Denmark yesterday. Thinking that this bird’s next step may be Norway I opened the website and sure enough the last plot was to the south east of Nordre Øyeren! I shared this news and soon after a message came in that a Red Kite had just been observed trying to steal a fish from an Osprey at Årnestangen. Not surprisingly I spent a lot of time gaxing skywards after this but to no avail.

An evening dog walking trip around Sognsvann along with hundreds of walkers, joggers and dogs produced an extremely photogenic Black-throated Diver just metres from land that no body else seemed to notice!

Black-throated Diver (storlom). Only when looking through the pictures on the computer did I realise that I should have thought about the reflection

the red reflection is from the clothing of a jogger

here is Oslo Birder Jr in the background

and a couple of her pictures - she has a much better eye for getting the bird in habitat

showing how close the bird was to the shoreline. This is very atypical behaviour but the bird seemed fine

This duck really stood out from the other Tufted Ducks (toppand) but despite the large amount of white around the bill was clearly not a Scaup (bergand) due to it having a tuft and a broad, pale subterminal band on the bill. But is it just a wierd female Tufted or perhaps a hybrid? The pale feathers in the head suggest that it has a pigment problem which could also explain the extreme amount of white around the bill. The pale feathers could also perhaps be from a hybrid influence but what other species has a pale head?

here the head shape can suggest Ring-necked Duck (ringand) but I don't see anything else to suggest that and photos of the bird in flight (taken by Odd Rigenholt on FB) show normal Tufted Duck wingbars.

head profile changes

here it looks structurally like a normal Tufted which is most likely what it is

here the pale feathering can be see really well