Wednesday 19 October 2022

Making Autumn Great Again

 The great autumn weather and birding continues and we are now having overnight frosts which is causing the leaves to fall from the trees and will also push more birds out of the forests and hills further inland.

Yesterday, at Fornebu I again saw Jack Snipe very well with 2 birds giving themselves up. I was able to watch both birds from a distance of ca.50m in the scope and hoped to watch them feeding but both just remained motionless. One was near the water line and as the tide rose I expected it to move as the water reached it but no it just allowed the water to come higher and higher and in the end it was floating in the water. The birds could definitely see me but at such long range I would not think that they would be motionless because of me but maybe they were. Long-tailed Tits showed very well and they are a real bird of the autumn.

A trip to Maridalen resulted in me hearing Kingfisher although bushes stopped me seeing it before I heard if flew upstream.

In the evening I went owling and had two Tengmalm’s calling and visible in the thermal camera but I did not manage to see them in the head torch. Two curious Woodcock landed literally at my feet and stood there for a couple of seconds before flying off and I am not sure who was more surprised them or me.

Today I visited Østensjøvannet hoping that the Dusky Warbler may still be there but if it was it did not make its presence known to me. A Smew (found my Jack D on Saturday) was a year tick though and made the visit worthwhile. In Maridalen two Pygmy Owls revealed themselves (one with 11 photographers in tow….).

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)



and with an angry Goldcrest (fuglekonge) - our smallest owl with out smallest bird

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)




a Nuthatch (spettmeis) and 2 Great Tits (kjøttmeis)

Smew (lappfiskand) at Østensjøvannet

synchronised Whooper Swans (sangsvane) in Maridalen

Blue Tit (blåmeis) with a twig through its head

Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen - will it try to overwinter?

Goldcrest

close up of Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)



see the fly on its neck




three pictures of the same bird zooming out...


can you still see it?

This video with its dodgy colours show how once the water came in that the bird started floating in the water



3 comments:

  1. Love the owls. Also there is UK speculation about a good waxwing winter this year. Would value your take on this.

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  2. The numbers are around Oslo are nothing special so far but there are very few berries (which I believe is the same over most of Scandinavia) so this may cause the Waxwings to keep on going in search of food

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  3. Thanks, troops have been alerted and there's been a smattering of sightings in Shetland and along the east coast. Hopefully some will make it to Ireland in 2023.

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