After my first sighting of Pine Grosbeak on Wednesday, I found none yesterday but today had ten in total including my first adult males and my first in Maridalen. It is not quite invasion tendencies yet but I reckon we will have a good, if gradual, arrival. The birds I saw today were in spruce but they will turn up in an urban car park soon.
Maridalsvannet was completely calm today and revealed a total of 12 Common Scoters and the juv Black-throated Diver which is still present and may well not leave until the lake freezes which the way things are going may not be until well into 2027.
It is so mild that dragons are still flying and I also had a butterfly today which flew too quickly but was probably a Comma (hvit C).
a very late Black-throated Diver (storlom) in Maridalsvannet
Common Scoter (svartand) and a Wigeon also on Maridalsvannet today
Crested Tit (toppmeis) are quite easy to find at the moment
2 Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit)
and another two which were part of a flock of eight that were all in this tree top and included two adult males but it was only when they flew that I realsied how many there were
the Grozzas were at Grefsenkollen which has a great view over the city and fjord
these two ferries (one coming from Denmark and the other Germany I believe) offer mini cruises and always seem to race each other into Oslo in the morning
one of two Marsh Tits (løvmeis) at the feeders in Maridalen today
After last weekends snow we have generally had warm weather although cloud free nights have meant the mornings are cold. Thursday was an exception with strong southerly winds and cloud which led Jack and I to sea gaze from Krokstrand. A single Kittiwake and a few Razorbills which outnumbered Guillemots about twenty to one were the only indications of birds driven in by the wind.
Seeing the sea at Krokstrand
Maridalen has seen a small arrival of mountain breeding sea ducks which is typical for mid to late October and their arrival follows winter coming to the mountains which forces them off their breeding lakes. Common Scoter are to be expected but single Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Duck are far more exotic. We just need a Scaup now to complete the set.
There has been little to record on the passerine and raptors front but single Common Buzzard, Great Grey Shrike and Pygmy Owl keep up the hope that we will have an owl(y) winter.
A Long-eared Owl at Fornebu yesterday which I was able to twitch acted like a migrating bird that was having a layover but it would also be a bonus if some again spent the winter there.
Long-eared Owl (hornugle) - could almost have described this meeting as a reunion
it was discovered first by Magpies and then Hooded Crows and Jackdaws causing it to fly off
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.
Today I had my first sighting of a species since March 1st and early/mid October is an expected date for a reunion after which I hope for regular sightings through the winter - but what species?
It is a fierce hunter despite its tiny size - it is of course a Pygmy Owl.
I have been keeping my eyes open for one perched openly for a few weeks now but this one revealed its presence by calling and then proved a real bugger to find before finally it was just there on a branch half way up a dead spruce and surprisingly well camouflaged. It then gave a very good showing of itself and was perhaps interested in the presence of the Beast but his impatience was a real annoyance to me.
my first Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) of the autumn. They are now moving away from their breeding sites deep in the forests for winter feeding grounds often close to the city
Ever since my first autumn trip to Værøy in 2012 the sound of and then sight of Yellow-browed Warbler has been an essential and longed for part of my birding year.
Even the years when I wasn’t able to visit Værøy I have managed to see and hear the species until last year when I drew a blank. I assumed that my planned visit to Værøy in a weeks time would remedy that this year but yesterday I had a far, far, better blank buster.
I have had the “tsuit” call of YbW on my mind for the last two weeks and have had my ears peeled in the never ending hope of actually hearing one. Finally I was no longer hearing it inside my head - the sound was real and coming in through my ears. AND I was in Maridalen where the species has never been recorded before AND there was not one but two birds calling AND there was even some (sub)song AND I saw at least one of them well AND I got photos.
Værøy will have to produce something a Cosmic Mind F*cker (as the late, great Bill Oddie termed it) to beat a YbW IN THE DALE!!!
This was my third YwB in Oslo but was a new species for Maridalen taking the Maridalen list to 229 species of which I have now seen 214.
This video has the call, of one and then two birds and the subsong can also be heard
photographing it with the superzoom high up in the trees was nearly a challenge beyond my abilities but eventually some record, and even slightly artistic shots were bagged
Yellow-browed Warbler (gulbrynsanger) record shot
do you spot it?
one of three Black-throated Divers (storlom) on the lake. This was the only one that had started moulting
