The weather last 4 days has been unusual. It has
been warm with a southerly wind (but often no wind at all) and lots of mist and
low cloud. This has had its effect on the birds as well with hardly any to be
seen or heard. We spent the weekend at the cabin at Hulvik by the fjord south
of Oslo and the few times I could see over the fjord there was hardly even a
gull to see.
On Friday and Monday though I did see a good gull on
the sea though. On Friday I found a Mediterranean Gull offshore at Fornebu and
yesterday again at Gressholmen. This is the same bird first found on 27 August
at Bygdøy and then seen a couple times quite a way south in Asker. There is
quite a lot of life in the fjord at the moment with clearly a lot of fish of
some kind encouraging gulls and Cormorants to feeding frenzies. There has also
been a record influx of Shags and I have seen up to three different
individuals.
Adult Med Gull (svartehavsmåke) with Black-headed Gull (hettemåke), Herring Gull (gråmåke) and Eider (ærfugl). Gressholmen yesterday
It is in active wing moult
and when I found it on Friday at Fornebu.
the wing moult matches the bird at Gressholmen
the black o the underwing coverts and along the edge of one of the primaries makes me wonder if this is younger adult
a late young Common Tern (makrellterne). One of 6 I saw as well as an Arctic Tern (rødnebbterne)
four of the six
the Curlew Sandpiper (tundrasnipe) at Fornebu showed much better on Friday and its legs were back as they should be so must have been covered in mud previously
Dunlin (myrsnipe)
Ringed Plover (sandlo)
3 Common Seals (steinkobbe)
Shag (toppskarv)
and another
we did get some sun at the weekend and I found this Brown Hairstreak (slåpetornstjertvinge)
with the mist it was suddenly possible to look at the sun
and here it was almost like looking at a blood moon
I am now back home after an eventful last day on
Store Færder. The number of birds ringed fell from 13 on Friday to 10 and then
just 3 on Sunday which I think goes down in the record books as the worst three
day streak ever!
I had lots of photos and videos of mostly waders to
process and have got my best shots of a number of species. It was novel to be
able to get so close to species that I usually see at very long range at
wetlands like Nordre Øyeren.
Little Stint, Sanderling, Knot, Dunlin and Turnstone
all showed very well and I will publish rather too many photos...
Little Stint (dvergsnipe):
Little Stint (dvergsnipe)
Sanderling (sandløper):
Sanderling (sandløper)
together with Dunlin (myrsnipe)
Turnstone (steinvender):
Turnstone (steinvender)
Knot (polarsnipe):
Knot (polarsnipe) and a Dunlin - the size difference looks huge here but doesn't seem so big in the field
Knot in flight with a couple of Dunlin underneath
Dunlin (myrsnipe):
Dunlin (myrsnipe)
Common Seals (steinkobbe):
Common Seal (steinkobbe)
much variation in colour
Shags (toppskarv) and a couple of larger Cormorants (storskarv)
Shags
a ship passing in the night
Jupiter and 4 of its moon and Saturn which were visible at the same time along with Mars
I was trying to capture the Milky Way but that hasn't come out in the picture but there are a lot of stars out there!
size differences - Little Stint, Knot & Dunlin
there were some passerines - here Lesser Whitethroat (møller) and Willow Warbler (løvsanger)
