Friday 12 February 2016

Giving Oslo the boot

Sometimes my brain understands the messages the body is sending it and today I needed to appease the body's demands and so birding Oslo by foot appeared to be a win win solution.
Judging by the pleasant aching feeling in my legs now the body is pleased but birding wise it was a meagre showing. The increasingly bitter northerly wind was of no help and signs of spring were hard to come by.


My walk confirmed my earlier impression of there being hardly any small gulls in town which is such a change from just a couple of years ago - I didn't see a single gull in Frognerpark for example and had only a total of 24 Common Gulls and 1 Black-headed Gull.

Rarest bird was the Peregrine which now seems to have settled down on the Plaza hotel. Most numerous bird was Goldeneye with a flock of 300 on the fjord and most variety was in the Botanical Gardens with surprisingly 25 Bramblings as the most numerous species.

this female Great Spotted Woodpecker (flagspett) has been in the Botanical Gardens all winter and was searching diligently for food  - can almost look like it was trying to hear whether there were any bugs behind the bark


Finches in the Botanical Gardens - Brambling (bjørkefink), Greenfinch (grønnfink), Goldfinch (stillits) and Tree Sparrow (pilfink)

In addition to sunflower seeds there were a number of finches feeding in the larches - here Greenfinch and Brambling. These larches are very attractive and also attract Siskins, Goldfinches, tits and occasionally Two-barred Crossbills

this was the first time I have seen Bramblings feeding like this - I associate them with feeding on the ground
there were at least 9 Hawfinches (kjernebiter) in the gardens - here feeding on some ornamental tree
I had 2 Collared Doves (tyrkerdue) in the Botanical Gardens and 12 at Marienlyst which is I believe a large proportion of the remaining Oslo population

never easy getting a picture of the Peregrine when it is at the top of Oslo's highest building.
it does though mean it is visible from many places in the city. Here I am in the Botanical Gardens about 900metres away

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