The fjord has birds!

My frustration at the lack of birds has been rather obvious of late but I had forgot about the fjord off Fornebu which last winter held exceptional numbers of seaduck due, apparently, to a vast hatch of young mussels which they fed on.

On Thursday after an uneventful walk around Fornebu we then checked out the sea and whilst the numbers of Common Eider, Velvet and Common Scoter were back to normal levels (20-30 of each species) we did have 7 Long-tailed Duck which is a very good count here and best of all Elvis, the long staying resident King Eider put in a rare appearance from land.

Also, a part of the fjord, Frognerkilen is an urban location best known for being able to feed the ducks and swans but there is also a small reedbed where I plan that one fine day I will add Bearded Tit to my Oslo list. A Kingfisher has recently been reported from here and after three attempts I also eventually saw it. Chatting to a man with a very long lens though revealed that he had been watching it for a couple of months and has managed to keep it quiet and not post (yet) any pictures on his SO ME so good on him and the bird!

One of my unsuccessful visits was enlivened though with a Jack Snipe which I think has been pushed out the reedbed due to a very high tide and was stood upon some floating reedstems.

The weather forecast shows no return to wintery weather in the foreseeable future and I am sure that Maridalsvannet will not freeze over until January at the earliest. And who knows maybe we are in for such a mild winter that it won’t freeze over at all which will be a first (though I think that I remember one previous winter without ice before January).

Common Eider (ærfugl) and the noticeably smaller King Eider (praktærfugl)

my camera was really playing up but you can glimpse the left half of a Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) here...

... and the right half here

Kingfisher (isfugl)

the Marsh Tits (løvmeis) are still showing well in Maridalen

Settling down

Birdlife in Maridalen has really settled down with all signs of migration having come to an end. The very popular Pygmy Owl (one of at least four being seen in the valley) by the bridge and feeders continues to show most days as do the Marsh Tits. I have now ascertained beyond doubt that there are three Marsh Tits which is a Maridalen record and 🤞maybe the start of a permanent range expansion. The quiet bird is still hanging out by the horses usually in the close company of at least one Willow Tit and is now feeding in trees rather than amongst (now frozen) horse muck. Only 300 metres away there are now two noisy birds regularly coming to the feeding station where they can be seen alongside the other five tit species.

Only around 25 species is now the expected haul from a session in the Dale which really is not very exciting. A visit to the fjord at Huk gives roughly the same number of species but of a very different composition and on Thursday I had both Oystercatcher and Purple Sandpiper. There are many hundreds of Herring Gulls in the fjord feeding on a super abundance of starfish that are exposed by very low tides. This super abundance is apparently a further postive affect of a huge breeding (wrong word I know) of mussels last year which in addition to being food for seaducks are also food for the starfish.

Pygmy Owl before sunrise

In this video the owl chases off a Magpie (skjære) that landed close to it

Marsh Tit (løvmeis) with Great Tit (kjøttmeis)

Nuthatch (spettmeis)

birds need to drink and when there is ice but not yet snow to eat then theyneed to exploit any open water they can find such as this Blue Tit (blåmeis)

the view from Huk, Bygdøy on Thursday morning

Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt) and Oystercatcher (tjeld):

Herring Gull (gråmåke) eating a starfish:

and some reflections in Maridalen

Pygmy Owl with mouse and vole and still in the sun…

Yesterday was a particularly rewarding day. A start at Fornebu on a cold, wind free and cloudless day revealed all the bays were frozen and there was hardly a bird to see although I did hear Bearded Tits so we can only hope that they stay and start feeding high up on the seed heads rather than on the ground.

Maridalen was where the action was though. There are very few birds here too and although the lake remains ice free I only counted exactly 10 birds on it! A Guillemot (presumably a long stayer) and a Great Crested Grebe topped the bill. Passerines other that tits were hardly more numerous although I did not find the Marsh Tit – I assume the fact that the horse manure it has been finding food in is now frozen has caused it to exploit a new food source.

But it was a Pygmy Owl that stole the show and it performed to a group of generally well behaved photographers and the odd birder for pretty much all of the short day. And there are clearly rodents. I witnessed it take 2 Field Voles and a Wood Mouse with 40 minutes between each catch. One of the voles was eaten but the two other catches were stashed in a nest box for leaner times. It often was hunting right by the road where its two legged admirers were stood and after catching one of the voles it then flew with it at head height through our throng (a slight exaggeration we were never more than 10) to a small wood on the other side of the road where it ate in privacy before soon appearing high in a tree where it looked suddenly very plump and content and preened and enjoyed the sun.

 

Today though was if anything even better. Jack needed to add his 198^th species to his Oslo list so we met up to try to find the Marsh Tit for him. And we suceeded in finding two! The usual quiet bird by the horses and only 300m away a very loud bird. We saw and heard this bird long enough to be confident that it was single so my theory of a single bird and a pair does not look to hold water but two separate single birds is interesting. Why do they not hang out together?

We also had great views of the Pygmy Owl in lovely golden light and had it catch a Field Vole right in front of us and generally go about its business seemingly completely unaffected by out close presence.

I’ll start with documentation of today’s events: 

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) with freshly caught Field Vole (markmus)

the new and noisy Marsh Tit (løvmeis) which can be heard in the video

and the other mostly silent bird which doesn't seem to move far at all

Yesterday in chronological order:

first seen perched quite high

it then flew  into this nest box but without taking anything in. Through a crack in the side of the box it could be seen moving around and was in there for a few minutes.

after it came out it was searching for food in the area of the nest box and right by the road and a number of admirers

here it has taken a Wood Mouse (småskogmus) from the ground and flown up into the tree

much longer tail and larger ears on a mouse than a vole

the mouse has been repositioned and the owl is ready to fly..

..over 50m back to the nest box

here it can be seen inside. I believe it deposited the mouse in one of its larders rather than eating it

but there is no obvious layer of dead rodents or birds covering the base of the box although there could of course be some to the left

peering out

plunging down to a branch under the box

and immediately in hunt mode again

here it had clearly heard something and was leaning further and further forward

and (s)hes off

it disappeared into the dead grass but this shot just about shows the vole in its talons

here it has taken control of, and killed, the vole and is getting ready to take off

a plump and content owl enjoying the sun after having eaten this vole rather than storing it