Snow!

On Thursday the first significant snow of the winter came and it really came. It was wet and heavy and caused serious issues on the roads. Now, Norway unlike Britain is used to snow and the press (and population) has a good laugh when they see that Britain grinds to a halt after a few centimeters of snow. Well, you would be forgiven for wondering whether Oslo council had outsourced its road management to London Council after the chaos of Thursday. The snow ploughs were summoned onto the roads way too late by which time the snow on the roads had been compressed into ice meaning buses couldn't make it up the smallest of inclines. whole bus routes were cancelled for the day and the busses were blocking roads making it difficult for the snow ploughs to finally do their job. Even the airport couldn't cope and lots of flights were cancelled. It was something Britain would be proud of.

I drove into Maridalen but quickly found that the roads had not been cleared and even with new winter tyres I felt very nervous driving through 20cm of snow and turned at the first opportunity and gingerly returned home.

Friday was a real contrast with blue skies, temperatures under zero and roads and pavements now cleared of snow. A visit to Østensjøvannet revealed at what I first thought was a totally frozen lake but I then discovered a thin sliver of ice free water which had lots of birds on it including four Scaup.

the hide at Østensjøvannet and the thin sliver of water

looking from the hide

and looking from the half way along

three of the four Scaup (bergand)

all four

the one on the left has little white around the bill and dark feathers appearing on the head so must be a young male. It also looks like the first grey feathers are appearing on the back

Two Scaup flanked by two Tufted Duck (toppand). The righthand Tuftie looks a bit interesting with a ready crown which makes me think it is a hybrid of some kind but I noticed nothing in the field and have no other pictures showing anything strange

this female Tuftie with its rounded head and white around the bill looked very Scaup like

the same bird

and this male moulting male Tuftie looked at first to have a grey back and with the that head shape I was wondering (hoping) that I had a Lesser Scaup (purpurhodeand) on my hands

Cormorant (storskarv)

Grey Heron (hegre)

driving in Maridalen on Thursday before the roads had been cleared

4 double busses in a row which were not going any further

on Friday it was fairytale like conditions