OSLO BIRDER: An old fashioned winter

Monday, 12 January 2026

An old fashioned winter

We are now having what I expect will be the coldest spell of the winter with temperatures having fallen to -21C. In my mind it was more common with temperatures down to -20C when I first moved to Oslo 25 years ago but I don’t know if the stats will support me. When it is so cold then birding becomes uncomfortable and especially so if you are repeatedly, and despite the comments of others, fail to dress appropriately. Despite being a Brit I do know very well how I should dress and successfully managed to dress two children to survive playing and sleeping outside in these same temperatures so why I am so cavalier about dressing myself correctly is a mystery to everyone. I did finally wear a hat though on Sunday when the temperatures reached their lowest.

This sort of cold is of sort an issue for many birds and with days being so short they have to ensure they eat as much as possible in the few hours of daylight such that they can survive the long cold nights. In our garden the sparrows and Blackbirds are at the feeders a couple of hours before sunrise and take advantage of nearby street lighting to extend the hours in which they can feed. At least 8 different Blackbirds (3 adult males, 1 1^st winter male and a minimum of 4 females) use the garden feeding on bread and apples that are put out but primarily feeding on sunflower seed hearts that fall onto the ground from a feeder used primarily by sparrows (both House and Tree). Not many seeds falls down though and it has been very interesting to see how one female (I am sure it is just the one bird) has learnt to take food directly from the feeder. To start with she was able to put her feet on the feeder and whilst flapping her wings grab a single seed but after a week has perfected her technique such she is able to perch for a couple of seconds with less flapping. In addition to her getting more food she also through her flapping dislodges more seeds than the sparrows so the other, ground feeding, Blackbirds also benefit from her evolving actions.

The extreme cold seems to have concentrated the few remaining non duck water birds and the stretch of the magic stream that never freezes where I had previously seen a single Jack Snipe has now had up to two Common and three Jack Snipe and a Water Rail. These species will I believe also feed at night but even with 24 hours of feeding time there must be very little food for them to find and these are critical times.

The regular Maridalen Pygmy Owl seems to have turned its attention to birds with the layer of snow presumably making rodents more difficult to find. It tries to perch hidden close to feeders (so is rarely seen on tree tops as it often is when after rodents) and catch a tit by surprise but every time it is found by a tit they give it a huge amount of abuse often causing it to have to retreat before trying to return unseen and continue the hunt. There are only the occasional sighting of single Marsh Tits now so I wonder if one or more have fallen prey to the owl.

I spend a lot of time feeling envious at the moment. Mostly it is due to friends who have bitten the bullet and traveled to see the Azure Tit but yesterday my old birding friend from university, Will Oliver, found a Red-flanked Bluetail over the road from his house in Kent! Just look at this BOC picture he sent showing both blue tail and red flanks…😊

Maridalen on Sunday when it was -21C

on Thursday Jack and I went looking for a Hawk Owl that was reported a half hour from Oslo the previous day. We failed in that mission but did see a rainbow halo which this picture failed to capture aswell as we saw it

not quite as cool or addictive as Hawkie but you never say no when offered a dose of Pygmie

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin). Their plumage looses its otherwise magic camouflage capabilities when snow makes everything white. Here though it has back up into the snow in attempt to hide from me

on another day when I saw two birds. I set up the camera on the tripod to remotely film this bird expecting it to unfreeze and begin bobbing and feeding but gave up after 35 minutes when a lack of action made me fear that even if I was not visible that the camera on a tripod was visible in such away that the bird was still nervous.

These two videos show how the bird only relaxed slightly over the 35 minutes. It did stand up but did not move away and feed. At the end you see it lowering itself again as I went to the camera and made myself visible. Note also how a close feeding Mallard (stokkand) causes no movement from the snipe. The second video is just a zoomed in and 4x sped up version of the first.