Wintering Mistle Thrush

The supply of rowan berries which earlier had seemed infinite has now been seriously dented by the vast flocks of Fieldfares and most areas are now suddenly stripped clean. The Fieldfares have mostly moved on now with just tens rather than thousands. Every now and again you come across a lone Fieldfare that has taken ownership of a single small rowan bush and defends it from other birds.

Far more exciting though has been finding that one of the record late Mistle Thrushes that has been knocking around Maridalen has declared ownership of a cluster of three rowan trees that are still full of berries and is noisily chasing off anything else that tries to help themselves including Blackbirds, Fieldfares and Bullfinches although I have yet to see Grozzas try their luck. This behaviour suggests it has decided to stay here as long as it can which may be a few weeks at least. Already the latest record in Oslo it will be exciting to follow it in the coming weeks.

Mistle Thrush is a rare overwintering bird in Norway with many of the records being of birds surviving on mistletoe (hence the name). Mistletoe is itself rare in Norway with none that I am aware of in Oslo and most is to be found on the west side of the fjord south of Oslo.

Mistle Thrush (duetrost) and food

frosty breath which can also be seen in the next video

the call in the video is a new one for me but in the next two videos (one taken with superzoom and the other with my phone) you also hear the normal call which he was making whilst chasing all the other birds off

a frosty Grozza

a trip to Huk gave little except for 13 Purple Sands (fjæreplytt) and interestingly 5 Grozzas that headed south east calling quite high up. With the supply of berries dwindling birds are probably moving around more now

Hawkie

here he chose a very public place to hunt at sunset allowing me to try to get some arty shots