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
My frustration at the lack of birds has been rather obvious
of late but I had forgot about the fjord off Fornebu which last winter held
exceptional numbers of seaduck due, apparently, to a vast hatch of young
mussels which they fed on.
On Thursday after an uneventful walk around Fornebu we then
checked out the sea and whilst the numbers of Common Eider, Velvet and Common
Scoter were back to normal levels (20-30 of each species) we did have 7
Long-tailed Duck which is a very good count here and best of all Elvis, the
long staying resident King Eider put in a rare appearance from land.
Also, a part of the fjord, Frognerkilen is an urban location
best known for being able to feed the ducks and swans but there is also a small
reedbed where I plan that one fine day I will add Bearded Tit to my Oslo list.
A Kingfisher has recently been reported from here and after three
attempts I also eventually saw it. Chatting to a man with a very long lens
though revealed that he had been watching it for a couple of months and has
managed to keep it quiet and not post (yet) any pictures on his SO ME so good
on him and the bird!
One of my unsuccessful visits was enlivened though with a
Jack Snipe which I think has been pushed out the reedbed due to a very high
tide and was stood upon some floating reedstems.
The weather forecast shows no return to wintery weather in
the foreseeable future and I am sure that Maridalsvannet will not freeze over
until January at the earliest. And who knows maybe we are in for such a mild
winter that it won’t freeze over at all which will be a first (though I think
that I remember one previous winter without ice before January).
Common Eider (ærfugl) and the noticeably smaller King Eider (praktærfugl)
my camera was really playing up but you can glimpse the left half of a Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) here...
... and the right half here
Kingfisher (isfugl)
the Marsh Tits (løvmeis) are still showing well in Maridalen
Birdlife in Maridalen has really settled down with all signs of migration having come to an end. The very popular Pygmy Owl (one of at least four being seen in the valley) by the bridge and feeders continues to show most days as do the Marsh Tits. I have now ascertained beyond doubt that there are three Marsh Tits which is a Maridalen record and 🤞maybe the start of a permanent range expansion. The quiet bird is still hanging out by the horses usually in the close company of at least one Willow Tit and is now feeding in trees rather than amongst (now frozen) horse muck. Only 300 metres away there are now two noisy birds regularly coming to the feeding station where they can be seen alongside the other five tit species.
Only around 25 species is now the expected haul from a session in the Dale which really is not very exciting. A visit to the fjord at Huk gives roughly the same number of species but of a very different composition and on Thursday I had both Oystercatcher and Purple Sandpiper. There are many hundreds of Herring Gulls in the fjord feeding on a super abundance of starfish that are exposed by very low tides. This super abundance is apparently a further postive affect of a huge breeding (wrong word I know) of mussels last year which in addition to being food for seaducks are also food for the starfish.
Pygmy Owl before sunrise
In this video the owl chases off a Magpie (skjære) that landed close to it
Marsh Tit (løvmeis) with Great Tit (kjøttmeis)
Nuthatch (spettmeis)
birds need to drink and when there is ice but not yet snow to eat then theyneed to exploit any open water they can find such as this Blue Tit (blåmeis)
the view from Huk, Bygdøy on Thursday morning
Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt) and Oystercatcher (tjeld):
Yesterday was a particularly rewarding day. A start at
Fornebu on a cold, wind free and cloudless day revealed all the bays were
frozen and there was hardly a bird to see although I did hear Bearded
Tits so we can only hope that they stay and start feeding high up on the seed
heads rather than on the ground.
Maridalen was where the action was though. There are very
few birds here too and although the lake remains ice free I only counted exactly
10 birds on it! A Guillemot (presumably a long stayer) and a Great Crested
Grebe topped the bill. Passerines other that tits were hardly more numerous
although I did not find the Marsh Tit – I assume the fact that the horse manure
it has been finding food in is now frozen has caused it to exploit a new food
source.
But it was a Pygmy Owl that stole the show and it performed
to a group of generally well behaved photographers and the odd birder for
pretty much all of the short day. And there are clearly rodents. I witnessed it
take 2 Field Voles and a Wood Mouse with 40 minutes between each catch. One of
the voles was eaten but the two other catches were stashed in a nest box for
leaner times. It often was hunting right by the road where its two legged
admirers were stood and after catching one of the voles it then flew with it at
head height through our throng (a slight exaggeration we were never more than
10) to a small wood on the other side of the road where it ate in privacy
before soon appearing high in a tree where it looked suddenly very plump and
content and preened and enjoyed the sun.
Today though was if anything even better. Jack needed to add
his 198th species to his Oslo list so we met up to try to find the Marsh
Tit for him. And we suceeded in finding two! The usual quiet bird by the horses
and only 300m away a very loud bird. We saw and heard this bird long enough to
be confident that it was single so my theory of a single bird and a pair does
not look to hold water but two separate single birds is interesting. Why do
they not hang out together?
We also had great views of the Pygmy Owl in lovely golden
light and had it catch a Field Vole right in front of us and generally go about
its business seemingly completely unaffected by out close presence.
I’ll start with documentation of today’s events:
Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) with freshly caught Field Vole (markmus)
the new and noisy Marsh Tit (løvmeis) which can be heard in the video
and the other mostly silent bird which doesn't seem to move far at all
Yesterday in chronological order:
first seen perched quite high
it then flew into this nest box but without taking anything in. Through a crack in the side of the box it could be seen moving around and was in there for a few minutes.
after it came out it was searching for food in the area of the nest box and right by the road and a number of admirers
here it has taken a Wood Mouse (småskogmus) from the ground and flown up into the tree
much longer tail and larger ears on a mouse than a vole
the mouse has been repositioned and the owl is ready to fly..
..over 50m back to the nest box
here it can be seen inside. I believe it deposited the mouse in one of its larders rather than eating it
but there is no obvious layer of dead rodents or birds covering the base of the box although there could of course be some to the left
peering out
plunging down to a branch under the box
and immediately in hunt mode again
here it had clearly heard something and was leaning further and further forward
and (s)hes off
it disappeared into the dead grass but this shot just about shows the vole in its talons
here it has taken control of, and killed, the vole and is getting ready to take off
a plump and content owl enjoying the sun after having eaten this vole rather than storing it
