Q1

The first quarter of the year is now complete and an ice free Østensjøvannet is sure sign that spring is here as was the sound of singing Chiffchaff today. The ice has gone very quickly at Østensjøvannet – on Wednesday when I saw the Smew there was just a small ice free area where all the birds were concentrated but by Saturday all the ice was gone. The period when there is just a small ice free area is a good time to be at Østensjøvannet because it is possible to get good views of many species so it is a shame that it was so short this year. The Saturday visit was to see a Pochard that had been found and another visit today revealed both the Pochard and Smew to still be present. There must be a lot of small fish as there are good numbers of Goosander but there are few dabbling ducks and unfortunately the Black-headed Gulls look like they have already decided they are not nesting here for yet another year. The lake has previously had up to 2000 breeding pairs and lots of work has been done to ensure there are suitable nesting sites but something else, which I believe is a lack of food, has put the gulls off the lake.

In Maridalen the first Meadow Pipits have arrived and Twite remain in very good numbers but there is little else and definitely no raptor passage which I hope to see each day with sun….

female Pochard (taffeland) at Østensjøvannet

and a male Tufted Duck (toppand)

I scanned all the gulls for something rare but reading colour rings was the most exciting thing in the end. Here three different types of colour ring on Black-headed Gulls. The white and green are Norwegian and the red is from the UK (I have yet to receive details on it)

J88E was the oldest bird and was ringed as an adult female at Østensjøvannet 31st May 2015. It has been seen many time since but only in the Oslo area and it wintering grounds are unknown

J0280 is the bird that has travelled most. Ringed in Oslo 9 June 2022 it has been seen in Milton Keynes, England in January of both 2023 and 2025

Whooper Swans (sangsvane) are still moving through and this group was in Maridalen yesterday

Adders can be found sunning themselves in the same places each (sunny) day and it is still only males that are out

Black Woodpeckers (svartspett) are excavating a new hole after using the same one for the last 3 years

Goosander (laksand)

Great Crested Grebes (toppdykker)

spot the Meadow Pipit (heipiplerke)

and an easier to see Skylark (sanglerke)

Wintering Scaup in Oslo

Scaup is only seen very occasionally in Oslo in winter with only three January records of single birds in 2004, 2013 and 2021. That was before 2025 though when a small flock was discovered on 18 Jan on the fjord. The site is, as far as I know, rarely visited so the birds may well have been present a while. There are 7 birds and they have the company of up to 5 Tufted Ducks. They are diving to find food quite close to shore and keep returning to the same spot so there is clearly a rich but small (in area) food source. There are three males and four females. All the males are clearly 1^st winter birds and while I assume that the females are also 1^st winters I am not sure and there is some variation in how they look especially the extent of white around the bill.

That these birds are present and clearly find food is together with the huge numbers of Velvet Scoters, Goldeneyes and Eiders a sign that something is good in the Oslo fjord despite the repeated assertions that the fjord is either dead or dying. Populations of many fish are critically low but mussels would seem to be present in great numbers which is I think the main reason for all the seaducks this winter. There are quite a few Common and Cormorants and the newly arrived Shags but other fish eaters are very scarce with just a few auks and no divers or grebes.

From the same spot I could see in the telescope good numbers of Velvet and Common Scoters, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser and 10 Razorbills and 4 Long-tailed Ducks so this was a very bird rich Oslo fjord and also a spot that I will have to visit more often.

7 Greater Scaup (bergand), 3 males and 4 females. The smudges in white flanks and grey backs show the males to be 1st winters. Of the females the one at the top has a sizeable and clearly defined white patch around the bill which may mean she is an adult but the other three are I believe 1st winters 

here seemingly dabbling for food

with 3 Tufted Ducks (toppand)

and with 5 Tufties

with a female Tufted at the bottom

female Scaup and female Tufted. Here the white area around the bill is a clear difference but some Tufted also have this which is when you need to look at other differences such as the head shape, over all size (Scaup is larger), the paler cheeks of the Scaup and a smaller black "nail" on the bill of the Scaup

Hawkie survives in Maridalen but can go AWOL

Feeding birds

This post will inevitably include H & G but will cover what was, for me, a very exciting experience. Thursday was a sunny day with a thick frost covering everything and Hawkie was posing in a tree top when I arrived. He was moving from tree top to tree top which I interpreted as meaning there was no food to find and he was restless to move on but then suddenly he launched himself out over the stubble field. I tried to follow in the camera and just pressed the shutter hoping that I would capture something exciting. I saw the owl hit the snowy ground and then could see a mouse running away from it over the snow! I assumed therefore that the hunt was a failure but then saw that the owl did have a mouse in its talons. It flew back up to the tree from which it had descended and I quickly ran to get to a position from which I could better see it with its brunch. In the few seconds that I used to reposition myself the owl must have snipped off and eaten the head as my pictures show it to have a head when it landed in the tree and to be headless once I had started taking pictures again. The head or perhaps the brain does seem to be a delicacy as I have previously noted a vole with a large hole in its head. The owl pulled at the mouse a few times and seemed to eat some of it from around the open neck area before swallowing the remains whole.

I was very unsure as to how my pictures, and film of all this would come out as my fingers were cold and I had no real idea what settings I had chosen on the camera but with the good light I have actually managed some quite OK documentation.

Later in the day I had a pair of Crossbills feeding in a low tree which also allowed me to watch them carefully extracting the seeds from cones with their specially adapted beaks. There are still lots of Crossbills and lots of cones and I guess egg laying will start soon in the New Year.

 

The cold weather is now set to end for a week so Maridalsvannet that was in the process of freezing over may well remain ice free until the New Year. It is proving very popular with Cormorants with upto 12 birds clearly finding lots of fish.  A family of Whooper Swans is also present and they have had the company of a late Tufted Duck and a Canada Goose which I believe to be the injured bird that I last saw on 18 November but which would seem to have just been very successfully avoiding my gaze.

Yesterday was very birdless in Maridalen despite it being a good day weather wise. I registered NO thrushes of any kind and finches and even tits were hard to come by.

Hawk Owl spotting something

just before it strikes a mouse running over the snow

here we see the mouse in its talons

and here a mouse erupting from the snow

and running away over the snow which I had seen whilst taking the photos

I was very surprised to see that the owl had caught a mouse which must have been the one that was running over the snow. The owl that escaped was I assume under the snow and was rudely interrupted when the owl crashed into the snow to take its buddy

when it landed the mouse had a head

by the time I had repositioned myself the head was gone

I managed to film the swallow

this Blue Tit caught the owls eye but I don't think was in danger

male Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb)

and his mate

Whooper Swans (sangsvane) with a Tufted Duck (toppand)

and with a Canada Goose

Cormorants (storskarv)

Goldfinches (stillits)

did you really think you wouldn't see a pic of a male Grozza?

where there is snow it is very easy to see if Grozzas have been in the area as it looks like there has been a murder due to all the blood red berries staining the snow

still a work in progress  - getting good pictures of Grosbeaks with the city in the background. Here the bird was momentarily in just the right spot but it was before sunrise on a dark day and me and the camera were not ready

Maridalen Thursday 1036

Maridalen Thursday 1118

Hawkie in treetop

Maridalen Thursday 1136

Maridalen Friday 1108