Easter Birding

We are now back in Oslo enjoying an almost deserted city (everyone is in the mountains) and glorious weather. I am waking up early and getting some birding done whilst the girls lie in and then when we have a family outing I try of course to steer us to a birdy area:-) There is still little to see though as the snow and ice are making it very inhospitable for migrants. Despite the sun really warming, the night-time temperatures fall as low as -15C and it only manages to rise to a couple of plus degrees in the afternoon although it is no problem to be in only a t-shirt as long as one is in the sun. I have noted practically no passerine viz mig but Chaffinches have started turning up and on Saturday the Pink-footed Goose passage started with five flocks noted over Fornebu although they all hesitated as to where to go when they saw the conditions ahead of them and one flock turned around and headed south.

On Friday morning I heard a dawn chorus comprising Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Starling, Stock Dove and GS Woodpecker which was a joy to the ears and then later in the day had singing Goldcrest and Hawfinch.

A ski and walk around Maridalen on Friday afternoon revealed very few birds but the Beaver was again active in the middle of the day.

On Saturday morning I headed up to the Glomma River where there were 14 newly arrived Beans (the previous birds having disappeared presumeably to the south) plus my first Cranes of the year and a first for me was Hearing both Green and Grey-headed Woodpeckers singing at the same time.

Early Sunday morning saw me covering the same sites on the Glomma but there were noticeably fewer birds. Less swans, geese and ducks with just three Beans remaining although amazinginly enough all wore neck collars! I couldn’t read the collars but two were GPS collars, one would have been 30 who was transmitting from there and the other had a white ring on the left leg making him 08 which is a bird I last saw in 2014.

Beaver in Maridalen

here it is running along with a load of twigs that it took down its hole

Nuthatch (spettmeis)

6 Purple Sandpipers (fjærplytt) at Bygdøy which is proving to be an annual spring gathering 

this lost Taiga Bean Goose has hung around on a stream feeding into Østensjøvannet in Oslo and is probably having more luck finding food than its relatives on the Glomma River

Lapwings (vipe) on the Glomma on Saturday morning. They were gone on Sunday

this flock of Pink-footed Geese resting on the Glomma on Saturday morning contained two birds with neck collars. I only managed to read one: AH7 whose life history as collected from www.geese.org is shown

Pink-footed Geese migrating over Oslo as seen from Fornebu

I have had a few migrating Snow Buntings

14 Brean Geese on the Glomma on Saturday morning. There were two birds with GPS collars and three with normal neck collars amongst them and on Sunday morning only three birds were left which were the two with GPS collars and one of those with a normal collar.

Still very wintery on the Glomma as viewed from Udenes Church