Otter close to Oslo

Otter is a species I have seen a number of times in Nordland county either close to our cabin or more often on Værøy. I have often seen them well at some range and on Værøy have occasionally surprised animals at close range and managed acceptable pictures before they have run off. I have only once seen an Otter in the south of the country and that was a complete surprise when one ran over a marsh in the mountains at over 900masl.

Around Oslo there are very few records that I am aware of and most seem to be of tracks or droppings with very few photographed animals and the species does seem to be genuinely very scarce in this part of Norway. Yesterday, a picture of two Otters popped up in my Facebook feed that was on an icy freshwater river with reeds and Whooper Swans which looked very familiar and I wondered if it could be a site I know of close to Oslo. Checking out the profile of the photographer suggested that was the case and further checking online showed that there had been observations from this same site since at least March 2022.

Today then when Jr asked to get some driving practice I hatched a plan to take us there as even if we didn’t see Otter (which seemed very unlikely) it is a good place to see Whooper Swans and Goosander at close range. Well, unlikely things do often happen in the world of birds and animals and amazingly enough the two Otters were quite easy to find and even better they allowed close approach as they hunted for food in the water which they brought up onto the ice. To watch them like this was quite incredible and I assumed that it was a mother and young. I did not think too much over why they were so confiding and was just thankful that they were. Looking at my picture afterwards though has revealed why – the mother seems to be missing both her eyes. In all my pictures there is just pink skin whereas the other animal has “normal” eyes. The same feature is also visible in the other pictures I have found from the same site in both 2022 and 2023 when only a single animal was seen and in 2024 when there have always been two. So, it seems that a blind female has been here for at least 2 years and has thrived enough to be able to raise a single young this year!! I also noticed that it seemed to come up with vegetable matter to eat which strikes me as unusual and might be a result of not being able to see.

I look forward to visiting again in better weather (it was snowing today) so that I can hopefully get better pictures to document this interesting animal.

adult female Otter seemingly lacking eyes

she looks the same in all the pictures I took

here with what looks like a fish

both Otters. mum on the left and the young (with normal eyes) on the right

normal eyes

normal eyes

mum on left

here eating what seems to be vegetation although that may just be a bycatch of something else it is chewing

Goosanders (laksand)

and Whooper Swan (sangsvane)

Værøy 2019 Day 3

Day 3 of Værøy 2019 has been a disappointment of depressing proportions. The weather was good for being out for a walk (no rain and warm) but there were just incredibly few birds to see. Early morning in the north gave three new Yellow-browed Warblers so we thought there might a small movement but these were probably the only new arrivals and most other birds had moved on.

The Red-throated Pipit was still on the beach in the morning with other pipits and Twite but by the evening there was absolutely nothing left on the beach except for a single Rock Pipit.

Excitement came from following up a very strange sound which turned out to be two Otters playing, watching a hungry Kestrel chasing a Meadow Pipit in the air for a couple of minutes before giving up, a hybrid House x Tree Sparrow and thinking I had kicked up an acro from weeds behind the beach and getting all excited to only realise it was a Garden Warbler.
I also saw a dragonfly of one the larger species which I didn't see well enough to identify but this is the only observation EVER that I can find of dragonfly for Værøy.

Here are pictures from yesterday and today of not so rare birds:

a very grey Chiffchaff (gransanger)

Dunlin (myrsnipe)

there have been large numbers of Parrot Crossbills (furukorsnebb) on Værøy in September but no Two-barred Crossbills (båndkorsnebb) which have been on the move elsewhere in Norway

Twite (bergirisk) 

lookng east towards the mainland where there is already a lot of snow

Rough-legged Buzzard (fjellvåk) - surprisingly only the 3rd Værøy record

hybrid House x Tree Sparrow (gråspurv x pilfink)

Otters

a Redpoll (gråsisik) of unknown origin

A Kestrel (tårnfalk) hunting a Meadow Pipit which was a first for me

Værøy 2018 Day 2

A day of changing weather. It started very windy from the west but in the early afternoon there was hardly any wind before we had a storm from the north by the late afternoon. We also had heavy rain but also periods of sun. In the morning there were birds in the air and there was a feeling that it might be a good day, but that feeling had disappeared by lunchtime.

I did get to check gardens in the south for the first time and ended the day with double figures of Chiffchaff, 6 Blackcap, 3 Garden Warblers and 3 Yellow-browed Warblers so there were some birds to see. I missed the OBP that others saw though.

An Otter family that showed at very close range without initially being aware of my presence was probably the highlight. Once they did smell me though they actually ran towards me as their den was under a large pile of wood that was between me and them.

The birding highlight (and this shows how desperate I was) came from a couple of very different Redwing that were feeding together which I assume must have been an Icelandic (ssp. coburni) and a Scandinavian bird together.

The weather forecast looks more favourable for the next two days and on Friday (when I leave in the late afternoon) it actually looks promising.

Otter family

this is when mum smelt me (not surprising as my wet jacket does not smell very pleasant)

here they are running back to their den

Redwings (rødvingetrost) - the top pale bird is presumably a normal scandinavian bird whilst the lower bird is slightly larger, noticeably darker and has a much more extensive red patch meaning it is most likely an iceland bird (sub species coburni)

Yellow-browed Warbler

Surf & Turf

This morning with little wind and good light I finally got a Surf Scoter within some sort of photo range and also had both Surfy and Knobby within the same long sweep of the scope. It seems that Knobby is further out for every day that passes (as was also the case last year) but there is a small group of Velvets that feeds close to the shore and I have a hope that one morning I will find Knobby or Surfy with this group.

At the cabin I have had Waxwings on three occasions with a group of three birds today looking like a family party. This is the third summer I’ve had Waxwings here so I suspect they breed in the area regularly. We’e also had a pair of White-tailed Eagles making a lot of noise, a regular pair of Red-throated Divers and a porpoise. Cabin life is good!

 



Surf Scoter (brilleand) at long range

this was taken with 260x digital zoom on the super zoom (other pictures taken with bazooka)

from yesterday with Stejneger's Scoter and Great Northern Diver in same shot

the close Velvets that I hope one of the rare scoters will join up with. In the is shot is a female, 2 young males and the rest are older males



an Otter from today