Weekend birding

We had a nice dump of snow on Friday night which has left Maridalen and the forests nice and white although in the city it has since melted so everything is grey, wet and frankly, not nice!

Even though the surroundings now look different the birds are pretty much the same and the exodus of thrushes is now more or less complete with the birds I see being, I believe, ones that will try to spend the winter and with there still being lots of berries in the urban areas then this may be possible for many of them. The Mistle Thrush remains but has stopped trying to defend his rowan trees and was today sharing them with Bullfinches, Blackbirds and Fieldfares in seeming harmony. It saves a lot of energy having to chase off all comers but means the berries will disappear much sooner so I doubt he will remain until January now.

Fieldfare (gråtrost)

the Mistle Thrush (duetrost)

a Blackbird (svarttrost)

and a late Redwing (rødvingetrost)

the Mistle again

a familiar silhouette

it is always a joy seeing Grozzas eating berries in the snow

December guiding

I dusted off my guiding boots yesterday and we had a fine outing enjoying Oslo’s finest on a sunny if cold day.

Grozzas and Hawkie were of course seen very well and the supporting cast included Crossbills, Long-tailed, Crested and Willow Tits, Bullfinches and Fieldfare.

Hawkie with a vole

it seemed to open up the head to eat the brain I assume

before swallowing the rest whole

Grozza

male Grozza and male Bullfinch

Bullfinches (dompap) doing their best Grosbeak impression

Crested Tit (toppmeis)

Fieldfare (gråtrost)

Birdy

The weather is now far more autumnal than wintery with temperatures up to 8C in the day and no overnight frosts. On Sunday snow gave way to rain and it’s all quite gloomy and grey.

Fieldfares are around in enormous numbers with up to 2000 stripping rowan trees and also feeding again on the fields. Amongst them have been at least 20 Redwing, 2 Starling and an exceptionally late Mistle Thrush. The Mistle Thrush is actually the latest ever recorded in Oslo as was a Meadow Pipit today which really show how mild it is at the moment. There are also very good numbers of Goldfinch (>250), Brambling (>110) and Yellowhammer (>120) so it is all very birdy.

A trip to Huk in fresh southerly winds yesterday revealed no sea birds but three Long-tailed Ducks were without doubt in Oslo waters 😊

Pine Grosbeaks continue to entertain and I have had up to 47 in a day in. Hawkie continues to entertain the masses although in the poor weather we are having now it is in fact to possible to have him all to myself. I witnessed him fly into an overhead cable yesterday as he powered down from a tree top towards something on the ground about 30m away. He seemed unharmed but it goes to show how focused he was on a possible prey item that the unnatural obstacle that the wire is did not register with him.

Oslo's latest ever Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke)

and Oslo's latest ever Mistle Thrush (duetrost)

Goldfinches (stillits) are still around in exceptional numbers

and there are still lots of Redwing (rødvingetrost)

and Brambling (bjørkefink)

and thousands of Fieldfare (gråtrost) which strip rowan trees of their berries in just minutes

photographic evidence that I have seen Long-tailed Duck (havelle) in Oslo waters

there is very little to see on Maridalsvannet at the moment except for a handfull of Goldeneye (kvinand) and this Common Scoter (Svartand)

a shaky video of a Cormorant (storskarv) swallowing a Perch (abbor) on Maridalsvannet

filming Hawkie

here reacting to a Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) that landed closeby

and this is how he reacts to a Goshawk (hønsehauk) flying by

on Saturday morning when it was still crisp and wintery

Magpies (skjære) giving him a hard time

a video of Pine Grosbeaks taken on my phone at a couple of metres range today

this male was a noticeably more scarlet rather than claret colour red

same bird