With relatively warm weather continuing, it was nice to hear an early chaffinch (bokfink) in full song this morning in the garden. You can also hear an unusual breeder, coal tit (svartmeis) and one of several great tit (kjøttmeis) pairs defending territories at the moment in the garden; the coal tit is singing (higher pitch) from the top of one of the spruce trees.
Category Archives: Birds
Balcony fieldfare
1 or 2 fieldfares (gråtrost) normally overwinter in the garden and this winter has been no exception. They appear in autumn attracted to the cultivated and wild fruit. Fallen apples then become most important as the winter progresses. When the first deep snow arrives, I help them by putting out a few apples that makes it easier for them. The birds are very territorial, defending their cache of apples quite aggressively against other fieldfares. I put out apples in two parts of the garden which has lead to two birds overwintering. They are quite shy and have good vision, so only slight movement in windows puts them up. I’ve gradually moved the apples closer to the house and yesterday I put some apples on my balcony only a couple of metres from where I work….to my surprise, it wasn’t long before a bird found them and I made this video today!
Whooper Swans in Malvikbukta
Every couple of years, whooper swans (sangsvane) stop in the bay, usually just for a few hours, once for a couple of weeks in march/april 2010. I see them most frequently flying over, moving between their main overwintering locations around the Trondheimsfjord (see the map showing observations of over 100 birds).
Fuglevennlige planter
English: A series of 3 articles written for Birdlife Norway’s magazine “Vår Fuglefauna”
Waxwings on apples
Waxwings (sidensvans) have arrived here in numbers with about 70 in the garden today! Most of their favourite berry, rowan (rogn) had gone by the time they arrived due to the large flocks of thrushes that were here a week ago (mainly fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds / gråtrost, rødvingetrost og svarttrost). They had opened up quite a few apples near the tops of the trees before they moved on, and now the waxwings are enjoying them – they luckily don’t try to open other apples, so that there are still many for us! We’ve been harvesting the last few days, but still a lot near the tops of the trees that are difficult to reach even with the apple picker!
Robin in my indoors forest garden
The latest avian visitor to my indoors forest garden, also known as my living room (as it’s full of life!) is this young robin, maybe the same bird which regularly comes right up to me when I’m sat outside…
Robin joined me for breakfast
No, not my son Robin (he arrives tomorrow).
Robins (rødstrupe) have over the years I’ve lived here changed from a shy forest bird to the tame inquisitive bird I was familiar with in the UK before movimg to Norway. This morning a young bird joined me at the breakfast table for a preen, stretch and scratch before resuming catching insects…
Don’t cut those nettles, share them with wildlife
We may know that some of are most spectacular butterflies like red admiral (admiral), painted lady (tistelsommerfugl), comma (hvit C), small tortoiseshell (neslesommerfugl) and peacock (dagpåfugløye) may lay their eggs on nettles (Urtica), but did you know that just here in Norway there are 51 species of moths that do the same and two of the most beautiful were in the garden this morning:
1. The burnished brass / mindre båndmetallfly (Diachrysia stenochrysis)
2. The small magpie / nesleengmott (Anania hortulata)
So, please keep a patch of nettles in the garden all summer (you can still eat the young shoots)…there are also several birds such as bullfinches (dompap) and finches such as brambling (bjørkefink) that eat the seed in winter!
Shelduck visit
Every few years I see a shelduck (gravand) feeding in the field below the house. This one was captured on film at 6 am on 18th May 2023!
Closest Crane
I noticed a single crane in the field on the other side of the bay this morning, the closest I’ve seen one, but still too far for a decent picture!