Cold nights and sunny but still cold days have caused the
thaw to stop and also put a halt to new arrivals of migrants. This morning
there was no wind and the fjord had a thin layer of ice on it!
The Taiga Bean Geese have arrived though. The tagged bird
left Denmark on the 4th and arrived at the Glomma early on the 5th
having spent the night at Årnestangen. A flock of 50 were seen at Glomma on the
afternoon of 5th and I visited yesterday and saw ca.100 but they
were at very long range so I was not able to read any collars. Apart from Whooper
Swans there were hardly any other migrants to see and although the fields on
the east side of the river were mostly free of snow the ground was frozen.
Surprisingly the fields on the west of the river were still largely covered in
snow.
Yesterday and today Red-necked Grebes were reported on the fjord
but both sightings (same bird?) seem to be Slavonian Grebes. I saw todays’ bird
together with a GC Grebe and many Guillemots (all the birds had been
concentrated due to the ice) and it smalls size was enough to rule out RnG
although distance and lighting made plumage details impossible to see.
In Maridalen a Whooper Swan family with three young has now
turned up which must be last years family who have not lost any young over the
winter. 27 Skylarks this evening was I am sure a record count and 2 Snow
Buntings allowed themselves to be photographed. A male House Sparrow was also entering a nest hole so they male well be breeding alongside Tree Sparrows.
The White-fronted Geese and the flood remain at Bygdøy. The
flood waters were frozen this morning and the geese were showing very close to
the path and gave what were perhaps my best ever views of adult birds.
spot the Taiga Beans? Distance is about 2.5km
there they are
Slavonian Grebe (red), Guillemot (green) and Great Crested Grebe (blue). Faith is required here... Distance is about 3km
Snow Buntings (snøspurv) in Maridalen
a Lapwing (vipe). This was the only one I saw whilst going on a wild goose chase.
White-fronted Geese (tundragås). The bird on the right has a very extensive blaze
a juvenile/1st winter bird in the winter. With scaly feathers, no black barring and a black bill tip
the Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family are easy to see but can you spot the Great Grey Shrike (varsler)
A new Sunday tradition may be in the making with it
becoming twitching Sunday in which Jr gets to practice her driving by driving
me to a rare bird. The most important thing to make this into a tradition now
is that rare birds continue to found on Sunday mornings… That did indeed happen
yesterday (following on from the Cattle Egret last week) with the Baikal Teal
being refound 13 days after it was discovered and it was reported to have come
a long was out of eclipse plumage so sounded like it would be worth seeing
again. Since I saw it last I have had it in mind when visiting Nordre Øyeren
and Østensjøvannet and it was in Nordre Øyeren that it was refound. Not amongst
flocks of shy Teal or Wigeon but amongst Mallards (again) although in its
favour there were also Shoveler, Pintail, Wigeon and Teal associating with the
same Mallards. It truly looked like a male Baikal Teal now although may need
another two weeks to lose all traces of the eclipse plumage. Hopefully it will
hang around for a bit although winter arrived in force today and my attempts to
see it again were hampered by a blizzard.
I checked up on both the Wheatear and Tree Pipit yesterday morning and both were going strong despie it being -1C but the blizzard today seemed to have put an end to the
Tree Pipit in Maridalen although it may just have been clever enough to hide
away somewhere. The terrible weather will continue tomorrow but Wednesday
should allow me to have a better search for it. Best bird in Maridalen was an
Arctic Redpoll with a 100 strong flock of Common Redpolls (there was also at
least 1 Lesser Redpoll amongst them) but rarest bird was House Sparrow with a pair
amongst a 100 strong flock of Tree Sparrows. Have they been here all the time
since I first saw some in August?). The sparrows were curiously finding
something to eat in the snow on the road. I have no idea what it was and the
road had not been salted so it was not that they were looking for. I have also
put up some fat balls in the hope of attracting the female Grey-headed
Woodpecker that has been seen a handful of times over the last week although
not by me yet.
the Baikal Teal (gulkinnand) was a bit too distant to see well but using the bazooka with 600m lens and 10x digital zoom it was OK to film it
this is a screen grab from the video, and here is the video:
Today's Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik) - not often I see them in Oslo and even rarer in Maridalen
a Goshawk (hønsehauk) in the snow
Tree Sparrows (pilfink) finding nutrition in the snow on the road in Maridalen and there were 2 locally rare House Sparrows (gråspurv) with them
Tree Sparrows
there were also a few Yellowhammers (gulspurv) in the Dale. Could this be the winter to find something rarer amongst them?
The Tree Pipit (trepiplerke) on Sunday when it did look less energetic than the previous days
and its preferred area today when surprisingly enough I did not find it
The Wheatear (steinskvett) on Sunday. I reckon this bird will survive the snow a little bit longer than the pipit but did not look for it today
the Wheatear seemed curious about a Wren (gjerdesmett) that flew in
and the Wren was equally curious about the Wheatear. Both are insect eaters but the Wren searches in places the Wheatear doesn't or couldn't which may explain why it has evolved to stay in Oslo for the winter
Despite knowing there was no mud at Årnestangen I
decided to visit on Thursday reasoning that there could be raptors and also
that the flooded fields could attract waders or terns. My visit was much better
than I had expected with 2 Great White Egrets, a Kingfisher, 130 Ruff and sky
dancing Honey Buzzard topping the bill. My eBird checklist is here.
With the flooding I was unable to walk all the way
out and lots of silt had been deposited by the now receding floodwaters. Fields
of unharvested barley had clearly been completely underwater but did not look
to have been damaged. It is easy to see why farmers want to use fields in
floodplains as the silt makes for very fertile land but the floods that deposit
this silt carry great risks. There are normally sheep grazing some of the
fields that were still completely under water and I hope the farmer was able to
move them before the flood.
In Maridalen the great rarity continues to be seen
and I have now seen an adult male making four birds in total which are likely a
family party and could also mean a pair has bred without being discovered
earlier.
Great (White) Egret (egretthegre) has now become an expected autumn visitor to Nordre Øyeren although breeding is yet to be confirmed in Norway
sitting on a distant tree
male Kingfisher (isfugl)
although a typical butterfly of the early autumn this is only my second Wall Brown (sørringvinge) of the year and is another species that has, I think, had a relatively bad year
adult male House Sparrow (gråspurv) in Maridalen along side Tree Sparrows (pilfink) all of which look to be young birds. The lower bird has grey on the crown which could suggest a hybrid but in my experience it is not unusual to see young Tree Sparrows with grey in the crown which soon wears off
