I started the New Year in Hamar, which, lets face it, is not normally the best place to kick of the year. A stroll along the mighty Mjøsa through town resulted in an underwhelming 18 species. Two of these were of minor interest - a female Goosander laksand and two Rook kornkråke.
The next day was almost as unadventurous and was limited to a walk in the Botantic Gardens in Oslo but was considerably better on quality. I actually did two walks there during the course of the day. The first visit was more thorough and gave some good birds such as the regular Nutcracker nøttekråke, a Waxwing sidensvans, Goshawk hønsehauk and Sparrowhawk spurvehauk along with lots of Fieldfare gråtrost and the usual. It was here I found out my camera wasn't working and on returning home I found out this was not merely a dead battery as I had anticipated. So I had to jump on the subway and get hold of a replacement.
Walking through the gardens again on my way home, luckily this time with a functioning camera I found a nice Woodcock rugde!! Always nice to see and common enough back home in Øygarden it is an altogether different story in Olso. According to the national database this is the first January record in Oslo!
On 3rd January we were dog sitting and took a walk around Sørenga and the opera house. This gave a Coot sothøne as the best bird, a few Tufted Duck toppand and the usual good numbers of gulls.
Finally out birding for real on 4th January I took the trip to Gressholm where a male Lesser-spotted Woodpecker dvergspett gave excellent views. Goldcrests fuglekonge and a Wren gjerdesmett managed to find food despite the -6C temperatures and snow. Small numbers of the usual seaduck, including several Velvet Scoter sjøorre showed well here too.
After this a quick look in the Botanic Gardens again revealed no trace of the Woodcock but the Nutcracker nøttekråke showed again.
No comments:
Post a Comment