There are at least 3 Pygmy Owls in Maridalen at the moment
and on Sunday I finally got to see the one that everyone else is seeing (not that
I haven’t tried) and in sunshine. It was clearly hunting for rodents and made
one unsuccessful attempt to catch something. This is in contrast to previous
years when the owls have been seen to catch many rodents in quick succession.
There have been quite a few news articles about this being a rodent winter but
it is clearly still quite local.
Østensjøvannet proved to be half frozen today not that that
really caused there to be much in the way of new birds although I did have a
single Common Snipe and the Scaup was still present.
A nice surprise at home was a flock of 29 Waxwings that briefly visited an apple tree that still has fruit on it. There are very few Waxwings around this winter but I had been counting on them visiting at least once.
Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)
a classic pose when it has heard something
the female Pintail (stjertand) at Østensjøvannet was along with the Mallards clearly hoping I had food
these two Goldeneyes (kvinand) with bills that are turning yellow must be young females
good numbers of Herons (gråhegre) show there must also be a lot of fish
the ice had concentrated all the remaining (9) Moorhens (sivhøne) and I assume now that all but one or two will move off over night
this really is not a finch winter with seemingly no wintering birds other than resident birds. This (Lesser) Redpoll is a rare sight at the momemnt
the Scaup (bergand) with a Tufted Duck (toppand) and 4 Wigeon (brunnakke)
Waxwing (sidensvans) in the garden
the Maridalen Marsh Tit (løvmeis)
just look how much the appearance of a pale wing panel changes depending on angle
and a Willow Tit (granmeis) where the pale wing panel is always obvious
We have now had a few nights of frost and with very little
wind and daytime temperatures also staying cold I visited Østensjøvannet expecting
it to be mostly covered in ice. In fact the lake was ice free with just some
ice on the edges although the wrongly named Wader Pond (just Pond would
suffice) was frozen. I was a bit surprised that the first bird I saw was a
Scaup as the bird I found on 3 Nov has not been reported since the 8th.
This bird looked to be a 1cy male (a grey feather on the back and hint of green
on the head) whereas the previous bird whilst being a 1cy had nothing in its
plumage to suggest it was a male but upon looking at pictures I believe it is
the same bird but that just come further in its post juvenile moult over the
course of a week.
I had been hoping for ice as I hoped this would have
concentrated what ever birds were left (and also any new arrivals) but that should
come some time next week as temperatures are still forecast to get colder. This
will hopefully also push out some snipe which I was unable to find today.
Yesterday I enjoyed close views of Red-throated Diver and a
feeding Eider at Fornebu. The diver was showing unusually well and was in the
same area on Sunday. Rather than being ill I think it is exploiting a food source.
The Eider had caught a crab and I was able to watch it remove the legs by
holding one leg at a time and shaking the crab until the leg was detached and
the body fell into the water. This was done with each leg until there was just the
body left which was swallowed after some careful manoeuvring to allow it to
slide down. It impressive to think of the stomach acids it must have that will
allow it process the crab.
the female Eider (ærfugl) preparing a crab for lunch
the video shows it removing the remaining legs and then eventually swallowing the body
a confiding 1st winter juvenile/1st winter Red-throated Diver (smålom)
a Razorbill (alke) getting ready to dive
and the RtD with a Guillemot (lomvi) when the diver looks surprisingly small
a young Scaup (bergand). The dark green colours coming through on the head plus a grey feather on the mantle show it to be a male
And a video of the Treecreeper in Maridalen that likes searching for food on/in spruce cones
and a comparison of the Maridalen Marsh Tit (løvmeis) and a Willow Tit (granmeis) in sunlight. Notice how the Marsh Tit seems to have a very pale wing panel... a feature that is commonly said to mean Willow
Yesterday it blew again from the south so I gave sea gazing a go again. Two young Little Gulls battling into the wind were my reward which I must admit was better than I had hoped for but otherwise there were no birds that seemed to have been blown in. I watched from Torkildstranda by Drøbak which allowed me to sit warm and dry (it was bucketing it down at times) in the car and may become my new go to sea gazing spot. In the video you will see the bird flying past a couple of windsurfers. When it blows around Oslo and you decide to sea faze you can almost guarantee that you will also see wind surfers but very few other people. Birds and wind surfers must be the only people who scour weather forecasts looking for storms.
the first 1cy Little Gull (dvergmåke)
the second
and my sea gazing position
The Pygmy Owl in Maridalen showed in the rain as it tried to shelter by the trunk of a tree. It was really wet and looked very unhappy with one eye open and the other closed.
the damp Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) here using the flash which highlights how wet its head is
very bedraggled
Three videos - the first is a long edit of it in the rain and the other two short clips showing specific beahviour
The Marsh Tit continues to show well and continues to do very little to give itself away. A hybrid was documented genetically (a world first!) on the other side of Oslo from 2020 - 2023 and I guess this bird could possibly also be a hybrid (based purely on it giving the species specific call so infrequently) but I see nothing in the plumage to suggest so. Marsh Tit is declining all around Oslo so the chance of hydridisation will probably increase if lone birds do not find a mate. In my previous post I wrote that the closest population to Oslo was in Lørenskog but no birds have actually been reported from here since 2018 illustrating the decline of the species.
I keep attempting to take good comparison pictures of the two species and am perhaps getting slightly better at:
both the Willow Tit (granmeis) on the left and the Marsh Tit (løvmeis) are nearly in focus although it would have been nice if both were in profile
darn twig
and if you can't get them right next to each other in the view finder there is always photoshop
and the Marsh Tit on its own
From next week we are forecast to have negative temperatures and perhaps snow which will hopefully shake up things on the bird front.
A single Marsh Tit has now proven to be very settled in
Maridalen. It hangs very closely with two Willow Tits on a couple of horse
fields where they feed primarily on the floor and find food in or close to
piles of manure. What they are eating though I am unsure – it could either be seeds
or insects (perhaps eggs). There is only a single Marsh Tit and I have now changed
my previous observation from a pair to just one as I was only focused on
identify and documenting one of the birds and just assumed that the bird it was
with was also a Marsh Tit but seeing how close company this bird keeps with
Willow Tits that assumption was only making an ass out of you and me. I also
wonder whether the initial observation of two birds can stand as two as it was initially
reported as an unsure record with a photo of just a single bird.
Anyways, this bird seems settled for the winter and there is
clearly an abundance of natural food although once winter sets in then I expect
it will move to feeders. It calls surprisingly little, or at least gives the characteristic
“pitchoo” call very sparingly whereas the Willow Tits are churring away all the
time. This makes initially discovering it difficult but once the Willows are
found then the Marsh Tit should not be far away.
Apart from this little bit of excitement Maridalen feels
quite dead. There are no flocks of finches on the fields and the lake only has
a handful of expected species (Goldeneye, Goosander and Cormorant). With it
being so mild there are still quite a few Fieldfares finding worms to eat on
grass fields but I am clutching at straws.
The Maridalen Marsh Tit (løvmeis) anno 2025
finding some food in the horse muck
I'm not sure if it has taken a seed or an insect egg
here the Marsh Tit is feeding with a Willow Tit (granmeis) which is at the back. Note the much white and large cheek of the Willow
this had the makings of a very good comparison of the 2 species but ended up being blurry. The Marsh is closest
here the Marsh is at the back. Note also the large white wing panel of the Willow which is muck less obvious on the Marsh
Willow
the Marsh
Marsh on manure
Willow to the left and Marsh to the right
Marsh flanked by the two Willows. In this shot the Marsh seems to have an obvious white wing panel
Willow
Willow
Willow
2 of 5 Twite (bergirisk) that stopped briefly whilst I was watching the tits
this Treecreeper (trekryper) was searching for food on spruce cones which is a behaviour I cannot remember seeing before
These 5 Bullfinches were part of an all male flock of 6 birds - again something I cannot remember seeing before
