Long-tailed Skua

The weather forecast for yesterday was for winds of 10m/s directly from the south at the head of the inner Oslofjord so I made my way to Krokstrand in the morning. As I drove down the few remaining leaves on the trees along the road were hardly moving and when I arrived at Krokstrand the sea was calm. So yet again a weather forecast that didn’t hit the mark and the forecast rain showers turned out to be deluges…

There were a lot of auks moving though and they were now mostly Guillemots with just a few Razorbills and not even a single Little Auk. I gave it an hour and a half and did have one very good bird – a juvenile Long-tailed Skua. For a bird that breeds on the mountains of southern Norway it is surprisingly rare around Oslo and this is just my second local record.

The winds yesterday also brought a couple of Pallid Swifts close to Oslo as part of a large influx into Scandinavia although news took a while to leak out..

Today, there was more wind than had originally been forecast although I was restricted to a short trip to the fjord at Fornebu. Further south Grey Phalaropes and a Sooty Shearwater were seen but off Fornebu I couldn’t find anything interesting amongst the hundreds of Guillemots that were flying around in circles or sitting on the sea. A number of Guillemots had also continued inland and I had 3 flying over the ring road on my way to Fornebu and then five later on at Maridalsvannet.

I don't know whether these pictures of the Long-tailed Skua (fjelljo) count as a record shot but I saw it better in the scope. It was a very distinctive bird with a white head

Guillemot (lomvi) from today. Look at the next pictures to see what popped up

compare this photo to the ones of Razorbill and Little Auk that I posted last time. Note the streak flanks of this Guillemot

this Guillemot could prompt thoughts of a Brunnich's but note the dark armpits

Common Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen today - my latest ever Oslo record by 10 days