A couple of videos of birds from this morning. First, a group of swallows (lævesvale) and a few swifts (tårnseiler) were hawking after insects above the tree tops in the garden today, desperate for food in the record cold weather!
Second, a grey heron (hegre) flying past.
Category Archives: Birds
Robin singing at 10 pm
While most of the citizens of Europe and its plants are “cooking” in the heatwave, we are struggling to reach double figures up here and me and the plants are very happy with that :)
Our resident robin (rødstrupe) was nevertheless singing, balancing at the top of this spruce tree last night!
Greenfinch eating goatsbeard seed
Tragopogon pratensis ( Goatsbeard; Jack-go-to-bed-by-noon / Geitskjegg) is allowed to self-sow in my garden as it’s not only edible, it’s decorative when the seed head opens and is also a useful plant for attracting birds to the garden. This greenfinch (grønnfink) dispatches one seed every 3 seconds!
Double wave reflections at 11pm sunset
25th June 2019: Sunset double reflections at just after 11 pm accompanied by singing robin (rødstrupe) in the garden and oystercatchers (tjeld) in the bay :)
Woodpigeon at dawn
Late May: Early morning cooing from the resident woodpigeons (ringdue)…
I don’t hear this call very often (is it associated with courtship?)
Treecreeper at Tøyen
On my visit to the botanical gardens in Oslo (at Tøyen) last week, a treecreeper (trekryper) landed right next to me on a tree trunk and I made this little video. I didn’t know they were such a beautiful green colour??
Dandelions for bees, beetles and birds
Before my D.A. (Dandelion Awakening) I would religiously remove and cut down as many dandelions as I could, but nowadays my garden perennial beds are full of them. As I’ve written before, dandelions have become probably my most important vegetable in the winter months. I dig up the roots from my garden beds, where I’ve deliberately let them grow, in the autumn, store in my cellar and force them as I need them in cooler rooms in the house. These wild dandelions grow themselves, the only energy I use on them is in the digging and moving to store! A perfect vegetable! There are 11 pages in my book Around the World in 80 plants about the multitude of food uses for dandelions and how you can make a whole meal of them and cycle home after the meal on tyres made of dandelion rubber! But there’s so much more to this miracle plant and I’m sure you’ve read of its many medicinal properties including it being an anti-cancer powerhouse! Sat in the garden, a Eurasian Siskin (grønnsisik) just landed on a dandelion head showing it’s also an important plant for birds in addition to bees, beetles and other insects! Make sure you leave a few dandelions to seed and you may also experience a magical moment like this!
Brambling song in the garden
I was woken to the simple single-note song of a brambling (bjørkefink) atop a spruce tree in the garden! This is such a characteristic sound of Norwegian wilderness in summer!
Bulfinch visit at Apple blossom time
Bullfinches (dompap in Norwegian) have an unique biannual appearance in the garden. They feed from autumn to early spring on natural food and on the bird feeder. Of the natural foods, I’ve seen them feeding on nettle (nesle) seeds, maple seeds (sycamore and Norway maple / platanlønn og spisslønn) as well as buds of plums. They then disappear in March, but return again every year about the time when the apple trees are coming into flower. I presume they are interested in the ripening buds, but have never seen them eating them. A pair appeared again in the garden two days ago and here are a couple of short films. In the second, you can even here a snatch of bullfinch song. I’ve never heard that in May before, but they do sing weakly in late winter sometimes.
There could hardly be more blossom on the apples this year! Looks like yet another good year.
Female Pied Flycatcher
Sat in the garden this evening and I noticed both male and female pied flycatchers (svarthvit fluesnapper) having a bath in a bucket planted up with the water plant chinese arrowhead (see http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=19451). The female sat conveniently above the bucket for me to film! You get a quick glimpse of the male sitting by the water at the start of the first film!