Some Oslo birders are becoming disheartened about the lack of birds in the Oslo area this winter. As I have no (or low) expectations I didn't suffer as badly. For me the disconnect from nature is worse - there is no "incidental" birding in Oslo for me like there is back home when I can turn away from the ever present Teams meetings to watch a White-tailed Eagle havørn fly by, or pick up interesting birds on the way to the shops. Another advantage I have in Oslo is that there are some birds there that I don't see so often back in the west of Norway so it takes longer for the tedium to set in.
On 29th I predictably headed to Gressholm and for a while wondered why I made the effort, but then a White-tailed Eagle havørn flew over. Yes, daily back home but this was the first I'd seen on Gressholm and the closest I've seen this species to the city centre. Result! Generally fewer birds about that last time I was there with most wildfowl numbers dropping, just several each Velvet Scoter sjøorre and Common Scoter svartand and small numbers of auks (the proportion of Razorbills alke to Guillemot lomvi seems to be increasing). On the way back to the ferry I initially thought my ears were playing tricks on me, I swore I heard Waxwings sidensvans but each time I stopped moving to listen all I heard was Wren gjerdesmett. This happened a few times until I found a lovely flock of 8 Waxwing feeding on a variety of berries, including rosehips. There were also two Wrens gjerdesmett close by:)
I followed this up by popping into the Botanical gardens which, in contrast to my previous visit, were almost devoid of birds - possibly due to the presence of one of the few birds I saw there - a nice Goshawk hønsehauk. All in not a bad dull day out in the city:)
It was a full week before I managed to leave the house with my binoculars. On 6th December I took the bus to Huk where five Purple Sandpipers fjæreplytt performed nicely. Otherwise just small numbers of seaduck and good numbers of Herring Gull gråmåke catching masses of starfish.
In Øygarden I rarely see 100's of Herring Gulls gråmåke feeding these days (not for years really) and always thought that they only ate starfish if there was nothing else available. Eating starfish is an important ecological function - starfish prey on shellfish and despite the media hype that Oslofjord is dead there are LOTS of mussels - far more than I have seen in Øygarden for MANY years. Perhaps the gulls are contributing to this? Mussels = Eiders ærfugl + other seaduck and Eider numbers in Oslofjord are higher than they are back home (where a couple of decades ago 800-1000 could be seen!). Maybe we should be saying that the waters along the west coast are dead....
The next day it was back to Gressholm. Very much the same story again but without the eagle or the Waxwings. A Little Auk alkekonge showed well instead. Red-throated Diver smålom, Goshawk hønsehauk and Goldcrest fuglekonge were among the other sightings.
The boat ride home produced three Common Seal steinkobbe which to me is a good sign:)
On 11th December I went back to the Botanic Gardens which were full of birds again. Great views of Nutcracker nøttekråke again, a nice Hawfinch kjernebiter and plenty of Fieldfare gråtrost. Unusually two Grey Heron gråhegre flew over very low and very vocal.
I then popped down to Bjørvika (i.e. right beside the opera house). Here 15 Guillemots lomvi and a Coot sothøne were present along with a few hundred Herring Gulls gråmåke - one of which had yellowish legs but nothing else fit with YLG.
One of the 15 Guillemots lomvi (no Razorbills alke here!) present had a data logger attached to it. I was surprised how large it was.
In the evening I met a bunch of birders in a pub. SEVEN birders present - haven't seen that many in one place since the Pallas's Gull steppemåke by the opera house all those years ago!
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