Twite - thanks Jules!

A bit of a dull day weather wise with temperatures around zero and low cloud but the birding day ended with a nice surprise. In the garden there are still very low numbers of birds but a Waxwing eating apples on the ground was a welcome surprise and I hope he survived the day!

I put out food in Maridalen and noted a further increase in song from the Common Crossbills – I look forward to seeing if I can follow any breeding attempts - but otherwise there was little of note.

At Bygdøy the ice on the fjord has started breaking up and a couple of Velvet Scoters were close in. Further out me could see a flock of geese on the water off Fornebu. Geese in January are very unusual here and I decided to make my way to Fornebu to find out what they were. As I had expected they were “only” Canada Geese but this could well be a record midwinter count in these parts. They looked very out of place sitting in the middle of the fjord and are obviously fleeing the winter somewhere else but haven’t quite worked out where they are going.

Birding was quite depressing at Koksa. I met Julian Bell here and we witnessed a gang of photo terrorists (or as they would call themselves Wildlife Photographers) pursuing the Bearded Tits through the reeds and trampling the birds habitat in the process. I vented my anger with a couple of them that I met later and have addressed the problem on the local FB group but this sort of problem is all too common with some photographers who have no real interest or knowledge of what they are taking pictures of and would be better off taking pictures of planes or trains.

The surprise of the day though was when Jules found a flock of Twite which allowed themselves to be admired against an all-white background. There were some Common Redpolls in them with a variety of plumages but I couldn’t turn any of them into anything rarer.

Twite (bergirisk) left with Common Redpoll (gråsisik)

Twite and Common Redpolls

Two Redpolls with a partially concealed Twite

 

single Twite

flock of Twite. Note the bird on the right has a pink rump making it a male

lots of seeds fall onto the ground with birds then picking these up



the garden Waxwing (sidensvans)

surprise of the day - a flock of Canada Geese

bread eating Crested Tit (toppmeis) in Maridalen

belly of pork eating Great and Coal Tits

Mute Swans - the lower pair postured and the upper pair moved off sharpish

Velvet Scoters (sjøorre) in the icy water

this Wren (gjerdesmett) was going under the snow whilst searching for food which is a habit I have often noted before