A foggy week

This week has been foggy! Every day the weather forecast has said the sun will be shining in Maridalen and every day, until Friday, it has just been thick fog. Friday though more or less made up for the whole week.

On Wednesday I visited Fornebu to try to be under the fog which I was, just. I also had a target bird. I have been avidly reading about the Dutch Spectacled Eider and thinking whether I should take a trip to Amsterdam and thought I could try to recreate some of that rare eider twitching feeling by seeing if I could see the returning/resident male King Eider (first seen as a 2cy in August 2018) in the Oslofjord. Normally only seen with some luck and from a boat it has this week been seen with a 100 strong flock of Eider at telescope distance from Fornebu. When the distance is over 2km though we are talking about bad views but I enjoyed the challenge of finding it. It was joining in with the male Common Eiders in display and if it continues to show an interest in female Common Eiders then there is a chance it will be seen close to shore in the spring as it was in April 2022. There were also at least 290 Velvet Scoter which is an enormous flock for these parts and a sure sign there is a good supply of food. Goldeneyes are also around in good numbers so the story that you often hear that the Inner Oslofjord is dying is not quite that simple even if some species such has Cod have more or less disappeared.

At Huk I also saw the flock of Purple Sandpipers numbering at least 16 and here the rocks were covered with baby mussels so yet another sign of a healthy fjord.

The Hawk Owl survives in Maridalen although the fog has made finding it hard and I wonder whether a single Pine Grosbeak eating the last rowan berries at Grefsenkollen and then three migrating NW over Hawkie will be my last Oslo bird for a few years.

On Friday a Pygmy Owl also showed in Maridalen and a Tawny Owl that evening made it a three owl day in the Dale! Whilst the Hawk Owl is still clearly searching for rodents, and I believe really struggling in the snow, the Pygmy Owl clearly had his eyes on tits at a feeding station and this gives the species an advantage over other species that are rodent specialists.

A real surprise in Maridalen was a Merlin on Friday. My attention was drawn to it by the Hawk Owl that had become alert and was staring at on a tree top quite a distance away. I dismissed it as a Sparrowhawk but something stirred in my grey matter and I looked at it again more closely and realised it was probably a Merlin and when it then flew that ID was confirmed. This is Oslo’s first January record (and there are none from December either).

The sunny and relatively warm weather (just over zero) on Friday also caused a number of species to start singing and woodpeckers to drum.

I have had nightly trips into Maridalen with Jr where she drives meaning I can use the thermal imager. With it being cold and the ground and trees covered in snow the imager works exceptionally well at the moment. Mammals have been very scarce though with just one Moose and three Roe Deer seen but roosting birds have been unusually easy to find with two roosting Treecreepers and also a few roosting Magpies found. I will have a separate post on the Treeceepers as they are quite fascinating.

I will start with that undoubtedly is one of my very worst videos although it is at least not shaky

King Eider (praktærfugl), Common Eider (ærfugl) and Velvet Scoter (sjøorre) at more than 2km range. The two birders in the boat took a much better picture

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) in the Dale

after so much time watching the Hawk Owl I had forgotten how small Pygmy Owl is

Hawk Owl at sunrise (picture taken at 09:06)

at one stage it got ready to pounce but in the end nothing happened. I assume it had heard a vole under the snow

not an easy hunting ground and I saw no rodent tracks on the snow

a couple of Yellowhammers (gulspurv) observed the owl from a respectful distance

the Merlin (dvergfalk) which I found due to the Hawk Owl

I had hoped to be able to get pictures of owls in front of the moon but it is now too late as it disappeared below the horixon at dawn

a 2y male Pintail (stjertand) that is overwintering in Oslo

and an overwintering Teal (krikkand)

a very strange Mallard (stokkand) presumably with a good dose of domestic duck in it. With that yellow bill I am also unsure if it is male or female

Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt) and cockles?

and here lots of baby mussels

a Robin (rødstrupe) in an unexpected place

Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett)

This Water Rail (vannrikse) at Fornebu would disappear in holes under the snow

one of those Herring Gulls (gråmåke) that remind you why you don't like gulls

not many rowan berries left for this Pine Grosbeak (konglebit) to extract the seeds from

this is probably my last picture of a Grozza in Oslo for 3-4 years (until the next invasion). You will be missed