Jack Snipe

Todays birding trip was with the very enjoyable company of Rune Zachariassen. We decided against trying for the Blyth's Pipit at Mølen which turned into a good decision as it was reported as not being found today and instead headed for Nordre Øyeren. Coming out of the tunnel at Lillestrøm we were met with a bank of fog and decided that we woudl head south towards the coast. However, as we drove down the west side of Øyeren the fog was lifting so we instead decided to stay local. A walk out around Monsrudvika was not particularly productive with a single Scaup as the highlight.
Stopping to scan Svellet there was a very large and compact flock of geese on the water: ca.700 Pink-feet, a handful of Greylag and Canada Geese and despite the mist and distance we were able to pick out 2 adult White-fronted Geese (surely the same birds I had last week). Little else on the water here so we headed over to Årnestangen. We made a concerted effort to find Jack Snipe here which resulted in wellington boots full of water but also succeeded with a single Jack Snipe flushed along with a single Common Snipe and another snipe sp. that could very well have been a (very) late Great Snipe but we didn't get to see the tail properly. Also here 6 Common Scoter, another Scaup and 50 Mute and 80 Whooper Swans but little else of note.
Later in the afternoon I had a Blackcap close to the closing calling very loudly - perhaps it was trying to find out if it really was the only Blackcap left in Oslo.