Monday 30 January 2012

The century


The Med Gull yesterday was my 99th species for the year so I felt I needed to put the effort in today to take me to 100 species in January which is no mean feat in this neck of the woods. A Grey-headed Woodpecker has been regularly reported coming to a feeding post in Akershus but I ignorantly believed it to be a long drive from Oslo. On checking closer though I found out it was only 20 minutes from the house and that it was easily accessible. So the plan for today was made.
When I arrived at the site I soon found the feeding station which was just a couple of fat balls hung up on a tree in a field on the edge of a wood. Easy enough to view but there were few birds to see. Soon I heard a woodpecker tapping but this turned out to be a Great Spotted (one of four in the area) but not long after there was the call of a Green/Grey-headed close by. It took a while to locate the bird but then there it was sitting high up in leafless tree – a fine male Grey-headed Woodpecker.  This is only the third one I have seen so it deserved some scrutiny. I also heard the call enough to hopefully be able to distinguish from Green in the future.
Grey-headed Woodpecker




As I was not too far from Drøbak I chose to look at the gulls again. Only the long staying light 1st winter Iceland Gull to be found amongst the Herring Gulls but I was able to get some OK flight pictures this time.
I picked up the Pytt, Vestby Great Grey Shrike on the way home to round off a very efficient mornings birding!

1st winter Iceland Gull


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