Final birding of 2025

Despite me posting a part 1 of my summary of the year it isn’t over quite yet and I have managed to fit in some birding around festive and family activities. On the 22^nd I guided Emily and Diane from California for a very cold and crisp couple of hours at Huk, Bygdøy. We had a good haul of typical species with Purple Sandpipers headlining.

And today I saw one of the Maridalen Pygmy Owls for the first time in over a month and although I think food is hard for it to find I did see it with rodent in its claws.

We suddenly had a change in the weather just before Christmas with temperatures falling below zero and with no wind ice immediately formed in the bays at Fornebu. We also got the thinnest layer of snow on Christmas Eve so had a white Christmas too.

Maridalsvannet always takes a long time to freeze over but has started freezing over in the bays and there is a chance it will mostly freeze over before the New Year (when in a normal winter it will definitely be frozen) although I suspect it may take a bit longer.

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) in the Dale

Cormorants (storskarv) at Huk

and Purple Sandpipers (fjæreplytt) same place

Waxwings (sidensvans) are still in the area where I live and a couple joined Fieldfares that were eating wind fallen apples in the garden

Dausjøelva in Maridalen on 27th Dec

and looking over Nesbukta on the 26th with the first ice forming

Pygmy Owl in sunlight

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

Wadering

One of the main birding events around Oslo is the gatherings of migrating waders and waterfowl in Nordre Øyeren especially  at Årnestangen and Svellet. I have not given this much attention so far this autumn and have missed the best bits which are normally at the end of July when thunderstorms can bring down a vast selection of adult waders. Now in late August the species variety is significantly less and almost all birds are young birds. On Wednesday I joined up with Jules Bell for a trip to Årnestangen and Svellet and yesterday I visited Svellet and Merkja. The most numerous wader was Ruff with around 250 birds in total and more unusual birds were Black-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sand and Little and Temminck’s Stints.

In Maridalen I have continued looking for raptors and especially Honey Buzzards but despite what I would describe as perfect condition there has been very little to see although the HBs will get their own post later. A young Peregrine has been a regular sight though terrorizing a group of Feral Pigeons that frequent one of the farms and amongst the few Common Buzzards is a particularly pale bird.

Svellet has been Made Great Again and alongside lots of Ruff (brushane) are a couple of Black-tailed Godwits (svarthalespove)

on the neighbouring Merkja two male Gadwall (snadderand) in eclipse

Goosander (laksand) in Maridalen. A female (middle) has managed to raise 8 young which is incredibly gowing considering that the many Goldeneye (kvinand) broods typically and quite quickly decline to one or two, or none

here male (who has had nothing to do with the family before now), a 1cy and mum

a 1cy Peregrine (vandrefalk) has been regular in Maridalen and likes to have a go at a small flock of Feral Pigeons (bydue) that hang around one of the farms

this pale Common Buzzard (musvåk) has also been a regular sighting

I have seen evidence of a Nutcracker in the garden with discarded leaves and nuts from our Hazel Trees on the lawn and today I saw the culprit from the kitchen window:

Beautiful but bleak

The 40 odd centimetres of snow in Maridalen have certainly made it beautiful but birding wise it is now pretty bleak. There are very few birds to see at the moment even common ones and we are in that mid winter period when birding becomes a bit of a depressing hobby.

The Hawk Owl is still in Maridalen but the deep snow has caused him to search for food in the forest where I believe it is bank voles (klatremus) that are his target as these have more of a tendency to run on top of the snow. This makes finding him far more hit and miss but with a bit of work and luck he is still possible to find most days. Pine Grosbeaks though are now only to be found through luck with rowan berries pretty much finished off and the birds either having moved on (I had a flock of six flying south over Østensjøvannet) or else they are eating spruce buds in the huge forests surrounding Oslo.

The Snow caused a real influx of birds into my garden with upto 45 House Sparrows and 9 Blackbirds feeding on or under the feeders. A couple of hours of empty feeders though one afternoon was enough for 30 of the Sparrows to move on though to search for a more reliable food source and they are yet to return.

 

with there being so much snow I have had to content myself with watching the Hawk Owl from afar, if I manage to find him

although when they choose a electricity pylon as a lookout then they are a bit easier to find

the bird suddenly flew from the pylon and into the forest where I think it is doing most of its hunting now

Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit) may have gone awol but Bullfinches are still finding rowan seeds to feed on

Crested Tit (toppmeis)

Crossbills (grankorsnebb) are now the commonest bird in the forest and much song and courtship feeding suggests nesting is just around the corner

a male Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) at a usual spot