Fornebu

Today was one of those fantastic winter days: very cold (below -15C) with clear blue skies and white frost on the trees. I paid a visit to Fornebu hoping there would be some birds on the sea as the inner fjord is fast freezing over. I stopped first at Storøya where I picked out the over wintering Kestrel (tårnfalk) perched atop a tree â la Hawkie. There is obviously a good supply of rodents here as wintering Kestrels are a rare sight in these parts – would be nice if a Hawk Owl joined him.

I also had a flock of small finches feeding in alders which turned out to be Common Redpolls (gråsisik). In the warm early morning light they looked very brown initially and I assumed they were a flock of Lesser Redpolls (brunsisik) which breed here in small numbers. Seeing them better and in more neutral light though showed all the birds I saw well to be Common. Lesser Redpolls have also been reported here recently but I couldn’t ID any conclusively today. Norway stands (nearly) alone in treating these as two separate species rather than subspecies something which must soon be changed.

Common Redpoll (gråsisik)

cool haircut!

snow bath

The sea at Furst Brygge was nearly ice free although further in at Halden Brygge there was a lot of ice. Velvet Scoter (sjøorre) were the commonest duck with a grand total of 29 counted but the rarest was a female/immature Smew (lappfiskand). This bird has been around for over a week but only reported once in the meantime. It was at quite some range frequenting the sound between the two Vassholm islands but showed every now and again. 14 Mute Swans here were a high number and a sign that other areas have frozen forcing them to move on. Another observer had (and took good pictures) of Little Grebes and Common Scoter here later in the day which were absent when I was there thus showing that there is some (local?) movement going on.

Mute Swans (knoppsvane)

Tripping

No guesses what I needed today. I had lots of dealers to chose between today with 5 reported offering their wares at the weekend. I tried first the three reported close to each other in Østfold but I couldn't find any - I was starting to notice that empty feeling in my stomach and was beginning to get the shakes. I needed some action soon. Back into Akershus I tried for the one at Kroer but only scored a Great Grey Shrike (varsler) which was my third of the day. This type of little pick-me-up is all well and good but the high doesn't compare to what I was looking for.
 

Hawk Owl (haukugle) Nordre Furu

the slightly angry, what do you want look of a dealer

business can be tiring

With desperation setting in I set course for Frogn knowing that the dealer here would be hanging out by the school. On the way though I spied a dealer at Furu. This one has provided me low grade product on two occasions before but had been absent for over a week. Today though he was a bit shy but eventually I got a hit of high grade Hawkie. He even, after some encouragement, called a couple of times. With a feeling of euphoria settling over my body I took a drive-by hit of the school dealer who seemed barely interested in offering his wares.
 

In Maridalen a flock of 22 Bullfinches at one of the feeding stations was a multi coloured psychedelic end to my trip.

Weekend sightings

At home my youngest told me there was a baby bird sleeping in the bird table. With a dollop of scepticism I checked it out and found a dead Blue Tit (blåmeis). The bird was perfectly preserved but given the freezing temperatures could well have been there a while. It is very unusual to find a dead bird unless it has flown into a window or been taken by a predator. The plumage of this bird looked in good condition but there was not much fat on it. It weighed 9grams which according to BWP is right at the bottom end. As there is a good supply of food here I assume that maybe the bird just perished due to old age and the cold?  The girls wanted to have it as a pet which is I think a bit morbid! But I have other plans for it – bait to lure Hawkie into the perfect picture. The girls didn’t think much of this idea so at the moment it is in the freezer with its fate undecided.

this Blue Tit (blåmeis) perished in the garden seemingly of natural causes

this Fieldfare (gråtrost) likes the apples I put out and is dominant over the Blackbirds (svarttrost)

Earlier today I was in town and saw the adult Peregrine perching on top of a church (its second favourite perch after the Plaza hotel where it was perched on Friday. On the church it is much lower down and in a sort of photo distance. It was having a good preen whilst I watched it. Based on size this bird is an adult male which is what I also judged yesterday’s birds to be although I note that others are recording a large adult female in the city.

Peregrine Falcon (vandrefalk) Oslo

having a good stretch

and a scratch

and an itch

Exposure

Today I had the company of Fernando and a student colleague of his. We went looking for owls with Hawk the guaranteed, Pygmy a hoped for and Great Grey an outsider. I managed to deliver the first two but the GG was unsurprisingly not added to the year list.
Hawkie was available for us at Frogn School and this time of a half decent quality rather than low grade I've previously been offered here. Yet again I was gifted a great photo opportunity when a Magpie mobbed the owl, not once but twice, before the owl then set off in pursuit of the Magpie. Whilst chasing the Magpie it was easy to see how it gets its name as its flight was far more falcon than owl like. First I couldn't keep up with the action and then when i did lock on the autofocus wouldn't lock on so the camera refused to take a picture.
I would though definitely describe today’s hit as a good one and it will keep me tripping through the weekend....

The Magpie (skjære) mobbed the Hawk Owl (haukgugle) twice without causing too much consternation

The owl then reversed the cards and became the mobber

In our travels we checked out a couple of other Hawk Owl sites but with only two obliging tree top Great Grey Shrikes plus two foxes for our troubles (it looks like some of the owls have relocated though as there were some new records not too far away in Østfold). On the drive back to Oslo a Pygmy Owl was perched on top of a roadside spruce but could only be fleetingly admired at 100km/h.
We checked out Maridalen on the way home with 5 species of tit, 5 Great Spotted Woodpeckers together and best of all a moose which ran over the road just 20m in front of the car (I dread to think what the result would have been were it not for those 20 metres!)
Continuing the theme that all good January birds like to perch in an exposed position there was an adult female Sparrowhawk perched on an aerial on a neighbouring house when I got home.

And as a postscript on the same theme, whilst taking the family to see Disney on Ice in Oslo Centre in the afternoon I had a male Peregrine perched on top of Oslo’s tallest building.

adult female Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk)

Moose (elg) which ran across the road in front of us in Mridalen

Bullfinches (dompap) are always a great bird

The owl gave itself a good stretch and preen. Here it is fanning out its tail feathers

straigthening out the tail feathers

it ran each feather through its bill