Oslo 31 December 2019 - Downtown birding

Although it is not exactly a secret that I am not a fan of birding in the parks of Oslo they are a good and easy way of getting up close and personal with a number of species.

Priority today was buying beer but I managed half an hour in the Botanical Garden at Tøyen. The park contains a wide variety of berry and seed bearing trees and is currently full of birds - many of which are relatively tame and easy to get close to.

Hawfinch kjernebiter

Waxwing sidensvans

Even though I was armed with just a simple point and pray superzoom it was straightforward to take pictures of some of the park's inhabitants.

Birds from my point of view were at least seven Hawfinch kjernebiter and the same number of Waxwing sidensvans.

Around Oslo 11-14 March 2017 - Some Goodies in the east of Norway

I've been in the Oslo area for the last several days and managed to find at least one good bird.

Female Stonechat svartstrupe, Gressholmen (Oslo)

On 14 March I found a female Stonechat svartstrupe  which would appear to be only the fourth record for Oslo (though this is only based on "artsobs" which is often unreliable for the Oslo area). I found it on Gressholmen - one of the islands in the fjord outside Oslo. There were also a number of spring migrants like Shelduck gravand and Woodpigeon ringdue knocking about.

Hawkie playing hide and seek

Hawk Owl haukugle

On 11-12 I was skiing in the woods north of Oslo and had a nice Hawk Owl haukugle and a couple of Nutcracker nøttekråke as best birds. Paradoxically for a Brit both these are relegated to "also rans" compared to the Stonechat.