The gloom decends

The day before the clocks change and it was really gloomy. Low dark cloud and rain all day meant that it never really got light - we had to have the lights on in the house all day. I tried some half hearted birding cum car driving in an attempt to find Pine Grosbeak which are now invading norway. I checked out areas with berry trees that I know of with no luck. I did find about 50 Waxwing, a Redwing and a Nutcracker though. Later on a drive around Maridalen revealed a Cormorant, Tufted Duck, 2 Goldeneye and 8 Mallard on the lake and in the fields 300+ Fieldfare, 1 Brambling and a couple of Yellowhammer.

It was cold

Today I travelled with Per Christan Moan to particpate in the NOFOA autumn trip to Aurskog Høland. We left Oslo at 0730 whilst still dark and as we made our way to the meeting point at Fetsund it slowly became light revealing a frost covered countryside that didn't look particularly conducive to a goods day birding. After meeting up with the 15 or so other keen birders we drove on to our first stop of Haneborg. Along the way there were many Roe Deer although still few birds. At Haneborg there was no flooding and just bare fields with a Sparrowhawk overhead and a tailess Meadow Pipit in a field. Next stop was Kjelle where there was some flooding but it was all frozen so no waterbirds! A Great Grey Shrike here was the highlight of the trip along with fly over Waxwing and Goshawk.

Onto Bjørkelangsjøen where there was open water but no birds! A flock of 11 Long Tailed Tits errupting out of nearby were as always a good record.

On the way to Hellesjøvannet was a flock of 120 Canada Geese and 3 Whooper Swans in roadsode fields. Whilst watching these we picked up a distant Buzzard and another 4 Whooper Swans flew over. At Hellesjøvannet there was only ice around the edges but again few birds. In the fields were 10 Whooper Swans with 15 Canada and 1 Greylag Goose and on the water a Tufted and a handful of Goosander. Around the edges were 2 Snipe and a Reed Bunting. By now a northerly wind was blowing across the flat farmland and it was getting cold...very cold. A little walk and some food managed to warm me up a bit.

Final stop of the day was Hemnesjøvannet. At various stops around the lake we had a flock of 50 or so Starlings, another Buzzard, 300 Grelags, 4 Coot, Great Crested Grebes, Goldenye, Whooper Swan and Greylag Goose.

Autumn feels like it is nearly over. There will be probably be little productive birding in the coming months although records from further north in Norway and in Sweden suggest that an invasion of Pine Grosbeaks may be on the way which is a much needed tick.

Cruising the Oslo fjord

Seal

Velvet Scoters

Pomarine Skua

Veclvet Scoters and Purple Sandpiper (can you see it?)

Today was the annual boat trip in the Oslo fjord organised by the local birding society (NOFOA). The weather was lovely, sunny and no wind which unfortunately was not too promising for birds but as it turned out the day was a big success. There was a good turn out with at least 30 birders and I had my eldest daughter with me.
Highlight of the trip was a skua which I was lucky enough to find but took a long time to identify despite it sitting on the water less than 10 metres from the boat. Problem was that it didn't want to fly! Eventually it did fly but then away from us. However we were lucky enough that someone took a couple of hundred (!) pictures of which a couple captured the underwing including the diagnostic double white flashes (before seeing these pictures I had proclaimed with certainty it was an Arctic! - we live and learn). Studying the my own pictures of the bird on the water also show it has dark tips to the primaries which further distinguish it from Arctic which pas pale tips.
2 Little Auks were also great birds and unexpected in such calm weather. 3 Red Throated Divers, a Long Tailed Duck, 1 Common Scoter, 30+ Velvet Scoters, 3 Purple Sandpipers and 2 Dunlin complemented the common species such as Eider, Red Breasted Merganser
We als had very good views of four seals (not sure which type) and jelly fish were quite numerous.

Waxwings

A clear sign that winter is soon coming (in addition to be it -4C over night) was the sound of Waxwings flying over head yesterday. I didn't actually see them but heard them twice during the day along with Hawfinch.
Today is the annual NOFOA boat trip in the Oslo fjord. Apart from frost bite I'm not sure what we'll see this year as there have not been any southerly storms to push birds up the fjord recently.

Local birding

A walk around the local area turned up a few birds. The best bird was also one of the first: a Merlin dashing over the road in front of us. Flocks of Starlings andd Fieldfares were obvious as they fed on apples in the gardens, amongst them were as few Song Thrush, Redwing and Blackbirds. Finches were scarce but I saw a flock of 7 Bullfinch, a few Siskin and a single Chaffinch. Amongst a flock of Blue and Great Tits was a single late Chiffchaff. A calling Wren was an unusual sound this year after the cold winter cut the population to, I believe, under 10% of its level last year.

Brighton Birding

A few days back in the UK included a rare 24 hours alone with the wife staying in Brighton. There was a constant stram of hirundines along the beach, mostly Swallows but also a few Sand Martins among them. Little else to see except a Sandwich Tern offshore.

It was still 20 celcius in the south of england and you got the feeling that autumn was aournd the corner with some yellow leaves on the trees. Back in Oslo with 8 degrees and the trees now golden there is no doubt autumn is here.

On the bike

An hours bike ride around Maridalen this morning gave me a little bit of exercise and a little bit of birding.
Birding highlights were 150 Greylag Geese, the family of Whooper Swans and an adult Black Throated Diver. A couple of distant black ducks were most likely Common Scoter and a group of 7 ducks that flew in and joined the geese were probably Wigen but by this time I was watching the geese at over 1km range. Around the lake were Fieldfares and Redwings, Yellowhammers and flocks of Tits and Goldcrests which seem to have had a good breeding season after being very scare this spring following the cold winter. A female Sparrowhawk flew across the road in front of me and a flock of 10 Jays was an unusual sight.
Exercise highlights were a massive 17km and a top speed of 45km/hour - Tor Hushovd should be afraid - very afraid.

I have just started feeding the birds in the garden again and already Blue and Great Tits, House and Tree Sparrows, Greenfinches and a Nuthatch have discovered the sunflower seeds. Nutcrackers are still in the area but will soon disappear as suddenly as they appeared in August.

"local" patch

Yesterday I managed a visit to local patch, Maridalen for the first time in what feels like months.

The lake had good numbers of geese which looked like they had been disturbed from the nearby stubble fields. There were 340 Greylag and 20 Pink Feet along with 2 adult and 2 juv Whooper Swans which were presumeably the family that bred there this year. This is by far the largest flock of Greylags I have ever seen here. Little else to see, just singles of Goosander and Goldeneye.

A Blackcap in the garden was a latish migrant.

A norwegian tick

Finally I managed some birding with a couple of hours at Årnestangen on friday and was rewarded with a norwegian tick in the form of a Red Throated Pipit. No great veiws unfortunately just a flushed bird calling but the call is distinctive enough.
Unfortunately the water levels have risen very quickly lately so there was only a tiny amount of mud left which held just a single Dunlin and 2 Ringed Plover (a couple of days earlier there had over 100 waders of many species).
A late Cuckoo was the closest I came to a raptor and my first Great Grey Shrike of the autumn was nice. There were many hundred wildfowl and swans but as is often the case they were very distant and difficult to identify to species. 400+ Cormorants were feeding close in though in a fast moving flock that was obviously chasing a shoal of fish.
A very large caterpillar feeding on vegetation in a field was I presume a Swallowtail Butterly.

Garden birding

A new job is all good and well but it really puts a damper on my birding. Garden birding is the best I can do at the moment.

Today 5 Blackcaps were feeding on berries in the garden, Fieldfares feeding on fallen apples and a Nutcracker has been a regular guest this week feeding on hazlenuts. It bites off the end of the branch that holds the nuts and then flies with it to a perch where it extracts the nuts. These 2 pictures show the Nutcracker through the kitchen windown and also the results of its activities.

Camp as a row of tents

Time for the family's second camping trip of the year and a chance for the first birding in a couple of weeks. Destination was Øyungen, a lake in Nordmarka just north of the city. Arriving in the evening it was very quite. A Black Throated Diver was on the lake and a few Swallows and House Martins were hawking insects but in the firest it was almost completely silent. Towards dusk a couple of Nutcrackers flew over and a Black Woodpecker called in the distance.
At night there was not a sound to be heard - no owls unfortunately. Waking early in the morning I was rewarded by an Osprey, 2 Grey Herons and singing Willow and Crested Tits in the forest. Overhead a Tree Pipit flew south but by 9am everything had gone quiet again.
Highlight of the trip was in fact not a bird but catching a medium sized perch.

Little time for birding

Birding is taking a bit of a back seat at the moment as I'm back in gainful paid employment rather being able to bird at my leisure as I have been lucky enough to do over the last few months.
Despite not being out in the field it is difficult to escape the sings of autumn: in the garden I hear the gentle "hoet" call of Willow Warblers moving through, overhead Nutcrackers are a frequent sight as they search for hazelnuts in the gardens and Swifts and Fieldfares are starting to flock and move through in a purposeful manner.

Quiet August days

Back in Oslo I have been too busy to do any serious birding but a couple of trips into the forests of Nordmarka where we picked some very juicy blueberries revealed mixed feeding flocks of Tits containing Crested, Willow and Coal, Black Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatchers, Bullfinches and singing Crossbills.
This time of the year should be producing waders a plenty at Nordre Øyeren but unfortunately water levels are too high for much mud to be exposed and apparantly an adult and juvenile Peregrine have also taken up residence by the best area of mud resulting in very waders being brave enough to hang around!

Oslo

We are back in Oslo now after 5 weeks holiday around norway. The last days around Bodø saw little in the way of birding with other activities taking precedence including some swimming in truly ice cold water. Whilst on a fishing come boat trip I twice saw a young Peregrine Falcon which whilst being nice to see was a disappointment as I know the area to have the even more impressive Gyr Falcon.

Back in Oslo I was woken by a calling Wryneck in the garden which I failed to see but did see an overflying Nutcracker (they descend on Oslo in late summer to feed in gardens with Hazel nuts being a favourite) and had a young Blackcap singing in the garden.

There is now very little bird song/call to hear and most birds are young ones. In the garden in addition to the Blackcap there are young Robins, Fieldfares and Wood Pigeons and overhead young House Martins are making lots of noise.