We put the clocks forward last night. It’s now Summer Time! However, nature is thinking otherwise and from flowering crocus, snowdrops and wild Hepatica nobilis (blåveis) everything is white this morning!
Summer Time
Category Archives: Birds
First geese
The first pinkfeet (geese) / kortnebbgås passing over last night!
Dawn chorus of one: 23rd March 2020
A woodpigeon (ringdue) singing the dawn in this morning.
Silent Spring?
Not in the way Rachel Carson was thinking back in the 60s although that crisis (the biggest one) is also lurking under the surface too….but the current crisis has silenced much human generated noise and it’s like early Sunday morning every day now except there are even less flights taking off from the airport. I love it!! But spring approaches just like every year and this morning starlings (stær) were back in the garden, one of the golden moments of spring to hear the characteristic song of this bird again!
Here’s an archive picture of the year’s first starling sitting singing on a roof in Storlidalen, on the edge of the Sylane mountains, in April one year in the 1980s.
March Waxwing
I’ve only twice before recorded waxwing (sidensvans) in March here. They arrive in large numbers in October and November and are usually gone again by the end of January. However, this year small numbers have stayed on. Nice then to be able to film this one in bright sunshine this morning. It had been eating from an apple I’d put out.
Nervous blackcap on apple
A male blackcap (munk) in the garden feeding nervously on an apple that a fieldfare (gråtrost) has been guarding attacking any bird that gets near.
…and then demonstrating that SIZE MATTERS as Herr Blackcap (munk) meets Hr. Hawfinch (kjernebiter) with guest appearances by Hr. Siskin (grønnsisik) and Hr. Brambling (bjørkefink)…..and there’s a finale!
February Blackcap
A blackcap (munk in Norwegian) was foraging the last yew berries this afternoon outside the kitchen window.
Redpoll workers
Today at the Ringve Botanical Gardens I found the Allium garden was full of little workers eating the masses of birch seeds that had fallen during the winter….saving me a lot of work later. The first summer, there were thousands of birch seedlings in the garden…
Record early Robin
Ever since I moved here in 1984, it’s been one of the year’s highlights to hear the first robin (rødstrupe) singing in the spring and I’ve recorded this event every year since. However, it’s with mixed feelings that I woke up to this year’s first song this morning, a full 7 weeks earlier than what was normal in the 80s and 2 weeks earlier than my previous record. In the city, birds have been heard singing since January in the record mild January here…
A great tit (kjøttmeis) accompanies the robin in the second video!
It went well!
