My recent radio silence has been due to a non-birding family
retreat to Trysil. The snows haven’t come yet so we enjoyed ourselves hiking in
very warm and unexpected October sunshine. I did of course have expectations to
bump into some half decent birds in the forests and mountains but saw hardly
anything. Not a single raptor or owl of any description, no woodpeckers,
Siberian Jays or interesting finches or passerines. In fact the only bird worth
mentioning was a roadside male Capercaillie from the car on the way home which
showed really well but of course the camera was in the boot.
Oslo also had nice sunny weather today but it was cold and
the first frost will surely come soon. Maridalen delivered a good autumn days
birding though. The Great White Egret was last seen on Saturday but the first
(if small) movement of ducks was evident with 4 Common Scoter, 6 Goosander, 6
Goldeneye, a Red-breasted Merganser and a Tufted Duck on the lake today. A few
Greylag were also on the lake and the Whooper Swan family is still in the
valley along with some Mallard so actually a good wildfowl day.
A Jack Snipe in snipe marsh was the first sighting in Oslo
this year and looked to be new in with no tracks or droppings to be seen. There
were lots of finches flying around and amongst a small flock of Common Redpolls
I had a pale northern, aka Arctic bird – one of those flying snowballs. Five
Parrot Crossbills flying north were the first I have had in southern Norway
this autumn but there is a serious influx occurring with birds all along the
coast (including Værøy when I was there) and birds have also crossed the North
Sea to Scotland.
Buntings were only represented by Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting
but I reckon I can pull a Lapland or even better a Little Bunting out of the
bag over the next few weeks. There were small flocks of Redwings and Fieldfares feeding on rowan berries and a Mistle Thrush was a rare autumn sighting.
There was no movement of raptors but I did have three Goshawk
and single of Common Buzzard and Sparrowhawk.
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| Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) - in typical style it flew up at very close range on weak wings before landing again not very far away |
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| Whooper Swan (sangsvane) family |
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