Nocturnal thermals

I have got rather addicted to my thermal imager and am ignoring those who accuse me of cheating 😉

I have had a number of nocturnal trips including with Jr and the dog and have seen Roe Deer, Beaver, mice/voles, Woodcock, Tengmalm’s Owl and roosting Fieldfares plus a great display of northern lights. Daytime use has revealed Jack and Common Snipe.

I have had upto 3 Woodcock feeding in the same field which came as a surprise as I thought they would have mostly left by now but they are a species that is mostly overlooked. A Common Snipe which revealed itself then proceeded to bob away in Jack Snipe fashion which was a new experience for me.

A walk around Fornebu was brightened up by a fly over adult Med Gull but unfortunately the camera was again safely tucked away in my backpack (I don't want to make a habit of that).

Northern Lights

Woodcock (rugde)

Bobbing Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett)

the tiny red fleck shows this to be a male but I don't know why it is so small

Great Tit (kjøttmeis)

Jay (nøtteskrike)

Nuthatch (spettmeis)

this Scaup (bergand) on Maridalsvannet today was the first record in Oslo this year. It was also one of only two ducks I saw on the lake with the other being a Goldeneye

Waxwings (sidensvans)

Grey Herons (gråhegre)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) in Maridalen. Here singing

and here checking out a nesting box that is far too big for it

Making Autumn Great Again

 The great autumn weather and birding continues and we are now having overnight frosts which is causing the leaves to fall from the trees and will also push more birds out of the forests and hills further inland.

Yesterday, at Fornebu I again saw Jack Snipe very well with 2 birds giving themselves up. I was able to watch both birds from a distance of ca.50m in the scope and hoped to watch them feeding but both just remained motionless. One was near the water line and as the tide rose I expected it to move as the water reached it but no it just allowed the water to come higher and higher and in the end it was floating in the water. The birds could definitely see me but at such long range I would not think that they would be motionless because of me but maybe they were. Long-tailed Tits showed very well and they are a real bird of the autumn.

A trip to Maridalen resulted in me hearing Kingfisher although bushes stopped me seeing it before I heard if flew upstream.

In the evening I went owling and had two Tengmalm’s calling and visible in the thermal camera but I did not manage to see them in the head torch. Two curious Woodcock landed literally at my feet and stood there for a couple of seconds before flying off and I am not sure who was more surprised them or me.

Today I visited Østensjøvannet hoping that the Dusky Warbler may still be there but if it was it did not make its presence known to me. A Smew (found my Jack D on Saturday) was a year tick though and made the visit worthwhile. In Maridalen two Pygmy Owls revealed themselves (one with 11 photographers in tow….).

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

and with an angry Goldcrest (fuglekonge) - our smallest owl with out smallest bird

Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)

a Nuthatch (spettmeis) and 2 Great Tits (kjøttmeis)

Smew (lappfiskand) at Østensjøvannet

synchronised Whooper Swans (sangsvane) in Maridalen

Blue Tit (blåmeis) with a twig through its head

Buzzard (musvåk) in Maridalen - will it try to overwinter?

Goldcrest

close up of Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

see the fly on its neck

three pictures of the same bird zooming out...

can you still see it?

This video with its dodgy colours show how once the water came in that the bird started floating in the water

Good autumn day

 This weekend I have been a good citizen / parent and have worked pretty much all the daylight hours at a second hand market at the local school. This is all part of being a good Norwegian and is how the richest country in the world funds music at its schools (don’t get me started…). Whilst I was stood in the rain (I was lucky enough to be working outside..) messages kept pinging on my phone confirming that the Dusky Warbler was still present although it was just as skulky as when I found it and no photos were managed so I will have to write that description.

This weekend also saw one of the best Norwegian twitching stories that I know of. A Barn Owl (extreme rarity in Norway) was found last week on the island of Store Færder (where I was in the beginning of September) and a carload drove from the Stavanger area over night, got a boat out to the island and dipped the bird despite it having been in the morning. Then when what is probably the same bird was seen by a single observer on Saturday on the nearby mainland and they drove over night again and this time scored and saw it with thermal bins before dawn (no local birders/twitchers have managed so connect so these long distance twitchers deserve their tick!).

 

Today was started off as a fantastic autumn day with no wind and cloudy skies. I thought that Fornebu could come up trumps and if I didn’t find a major rarity (as if) then there should be something good like perhaps a Bearded Tit which have just started their autumn irruptions from breeding sites further south. There were clearly lots of birds on the move with 4 flocks of Waxwings, Twite, a late White Wagtail and Meadow Pipits plus other finches and thrushes but surprisingly no Chiffchaffs (of any race). I picked out a single Jack Snipe with the thermal camera (I’m getting rather hooked on it) and best bird was a female Grey-headed Woodpecker which I picked up on call and then got to see very well in the same area as a couple of Green Woodpeckers. This is my first record of the species at Fornebu.

A quick check of Maridalen revealed two Great Grey Shrikes together in the same tree and they looked to both be adults so were perhaps a pair that has left their breeding site together.

 

Here is my eBird checklist from Fornebu.

Grey-headed Woodpecker (gråspett). The lack of red on the head shows this is a female

and a Green Woodpecker (grønnspett). The all black mustache (lacking red) shows this is also a female

Waxwing (sidensvans)

2 Great Grey Shrikes (varsler) in Maridalen

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin)

Shovelers (skjeand) from Friday at Østensjøvannet