No new reunions this time although I have strengthened my acquaintance with the subjects of my last two posts.
The Med Gull has clearly hung around and was seen at Østensjøvannet on Thursday before disappearing again. A family walk around the lake on Sunday revealed it was back but it was gone again on Monday. It was together with Common Gulls and was feeding together with them on football pitches looking for worms rather than the bread eating Black-headeds. There are plenty of places in Oslo that attract Common Gulls searching for worms but that will change once temperatures fall below zero. If the Med Gull decides to stay the winter then it will probably out of necessity become a gluten lover.
the picture I had hoped to take last week - 1st winter Med, Common and Black-headed Gulls together
Med and Common Gull
looking for worms
Talking of temperatures below zero the first snow fell on the hills around Oslo at the weekend although it has turned warmer again now.
no snow in this photo of a very autumnal Maridalen yesterday
I have now found two Pygmy Owls in Maridalen with both still in the forest and there has been a bird in another place so currently three birds is a good start to the winter season. Two more sightings of Great Grey Owls close to Oslo also give me hope for an owl winter. One was hunting from wires along a busy road in farmland which is a sure sign of how bad the rodent situation is in the forests. I had a nocturnal session in Maridalen last night with high hopes for a Tengmalms or two but it disappointed with only a single Tawny and surprisingly no noise at dusk from either of the Pygmys I had seen earlier in the day.
Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)
No sooner than the photographers filled up the feeders for the winter season and Marsh Tits are back in Maridalen although I am sure they never left and will most likely have bred unnoticed. No Waxwings yet but there are still lots of Rowan berries and plenty of time for both them and Grosbeaks to come.
Jack Snipe migrate through the Oslo area from the end of September and can hang around until snow and ice comes with then a few managing to eek out an existence (or at least try to) through the winter on the few streams that refuse to free over.
I made my first attempt of the autumn to find Jack on Friday and succeeded in finding three of the little buggers alongside three of their larger commoner cousins. As is usual the Common Snipe flew up from the wet grassland (but landed again not too far away) before I had even found them in the thermal whereas all three Jack stayed put and allowed me to find them in the thermal. Without the thermal I would have seen none unless one flew up just before I stood on it but even with the thermal you still have to work very methodically to see them.
With two of the birds I set up the camera on the tripod and moved out of view hoping the birds would start feeding and bobbing but they just stayed put although did relax a little bit. How much they relaxed is easiest to see when you see them crouching and freezing when I went to collect the camera. It is of course possible that the presence of the camera and tripod causes them to be wary but I checked in on one bird half an hour after having previously watched it and it was in exactly the same place. All this suggests the birds are at their day time roost. Tracking of wintering birds in England shows they have daytime roosts and can fly a few kilometres every night to separate feeding sites.
The superzoom pictures are not too bad but the video took a bit of tricksing too make. For some reason I am not able to take video when I remotely control the superzoom via my phone although this was possible with the now defunct bazooka. The video was therefore taking using the screen recording function on my phone, so I was recording what my phone was seeing on the app rather than the camera recording.
We can start with photos of all three birds taken with my phone so they are of the Where's Jack variety. After each picture is a zoomed in shot showing the bird and hopefully making it easier to locate in the wider angle shot.
Jack #1 and superzoom
this is what you are looking for
Jack #2 should be easy to find
but here he is if a clue is needed
Jack #3. This one is very difficult
and even in this zoomed in shot is not that easy to find
here I appear to the apple of Jack's eye
and in this shot the flash fired and is also caught in the reflection
even from behind the large eyes that stick ot mean that the bird can see 360 degrees without having to move its head
Jack #1
incredible detail in the feathers
Jack #2 - there are subtle differences in the pattering of the pale feathers above the eye compared to #1
#1 revisited when he had moved slightly so that he was less in the open with his back end pressed against the bank. I have noted this before and serves I think two purposed. One is has aligned its stripes more with the grass so that they serve better as camouflage and two I think it is better poised to explode into flight if it feels the need to flee the scene
a Goosander (laksand) and a couple of Gooses of the Pink-footed (kortnebbgås) variety on Maridalsvannet
The second half of the week has, unsurprisingly, not been able to measure up to the good start but it has offered some good autumn birding. A trip to Nordre Øyeren today in damp conditions revealed a Svellet completely free of waders despite there being lots of attractive (at least to me) mud still showing. There were three Great White Egrets close by though and this is now a characteristic species for the area in the autumns. Despite it now being expected it is still a bit of kick to set your eyes on them and they are still exotic.
Bird of today was a calling Red-throated Pipit (lappiplerke) that flew right over my head when I was looking over Snekkervika but it wouldn't stop unfortunately. Also still there were two Red-backed Shrikes (tornskate) which are getting to be quite late.
Great White Egrets (egretthegre) - the bird on the right is perhaps an adult with what look like plume feathers sticking out
This video shows a dark juvenile Honey Buzzard and an adult Common Buzzard in Maridalen on Wednesday and continue the great run of sightings I have had this autumn
a video grab of the dark juv HB
and a picture of the pale juv HB that isn't in the video
the dark juv HB with a moulting (adult or at least 2cy+) CB
In this video of a Black-throated Diver family on Maridalsvannet from Thursday the youngster can be seen being fed small fish
juvenile Black-throated Diver (storlom)
BtD family
Goosanders (laksand)
a record breaking flock of 32 Cormorants (storskarv) that flew into Maridalsvannet yesterday and immediately set about feeding (or at least searching for fish) as a flock as can be seen in the video
Shoveler (skjeand) including an adult male in eclipse which I don't remember having seen in Norway before and a pair of Gadwall (snadderand) at Merkja today
A Nutcracker (nøttekråke) collecting hazel nuts in the garden on Wednesday. They do not eat them but rather fill up their throats/crops and fly many kilometers into the forest with them where they hide them to be eaten during the winter. In the video you can see it taking nuts and also see the bulges in its throat
This mink in Maridalen did not seem to have seen me and The Beast sitting only meters away but as can be seen could definitely smell us
Winter looks like it is now here to stay and Maridalsvannet
froze over suddenly last night. I cannot remember such a sudden freeze event
here with it normally happening gradually over a few days
The conditions today were perfect for searching ice free
streams for goodies and I turned up a Jack Snipe which I managed to film by
setting up the camera and operating it rom my phone whilst out of view of the
bird. It took over 8 minutes for the bird to unfreeze and after some bobbing it
then ran off out of view all of which I managed to capture.
In mid Norway, the first Azure Tit for the country was found
a couple of days ago and on looking at the pictures of what is undoubtedly a
Cosmic Mind-f*cker of a bird (to borrow one of the phrases from the brilliant Bill
Oddie’s Little Black Bird Book which is now 45 years old!!)
I started feeling
quite twitchy and might I say it, slightly aroused. I started making plans to
go and see it – either an 8 hour drive or a flight to Trondheim and then a 2-3
hour trip either in a hire car or by a combination of bus and ferry. If someone
else I knew had been going the next morning then I think I would most likely have
gone but as a couple of days have passed I have become a bit more sensible and
in time honoured fashion think I will wait until I find one in Maridalen……
a completely frozen Maridalsvannet with just the usual small area of open water where the river enters at Hammeren and where there was a Cormorant and Grey Heron. The whole lake froze overnight whereas it usually happens more gradually
a high key (over exposed) Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)
and properly exposed
these droppings in the stream made me sure I had a snipe to find and the bird was not far away
a spectacular sunrise at Huk, Bygdøy this morning. There were good numbers of gulls, although nothing rare, and whilst some were eating starfish many were picking food from the surface of the sea (not sure what)
Yesterday, I walked into town along Akerselva. As I was
meeting Mrs OB for dinner and a date at the Opera I took no optics with me. I
didn’t miss them with me being able to identify everything I saw either on call
or because they were close enough for the naked eye and even managed to film
two of the most exciting species on my phone.
