The Malvik monster swimming in the bay this morning?
No, just the resident flock of eider duck (ærfugl), some 80 birds:
The Malvik Eider Monster
Category Archives: Birds
Rowans and thrushes
Large flocks of noisy (in the positive sense) thrushes in the garden this morning. A flock of a 100 or so fieldfares (gråtrost) and a few redwings (rødvingetrost), song heard again today, were feeding on rowan berries, most of the birds lifting at the end of this video. At the same time there was visible migration happening. I counted a continuous stream of some 200 birds in 10 minutes moving westwards! A few waxwings (sidensvans) have also arrived. Yes, rowans are a must have in the garden although I don’t use them much myself.
Autumn song
Cool autumn weather stimulates several species of bird to sing in autumn, giving a feeling that spring is in the air for us as well! This morning it was about +3C and with a thick woolly jumper I ate breakfast in the garden and I was sung to first by a wren (gjerdesmett) and then a large group of noisy thrushes landed, mostly fieldfares (gråtrost), but a few Eurasian redwings (rødvingetrost) were also present and at least one can be heard singing in this clip!
Eiders on the fjord
A flock of almost 100 Eider ducks (ærfugl) in the bay at the moment!
Spring again
Yesterday at dawn sounded like spring again in the garden and I heard both woodpigeon (ringdue), robin (rødstrupe), chiffchaff (gransanger) and the two in the videos. The first is garden warbler (hagesanger). I’ve only registered this species in the garden a couple of times before and never so late! In the second video is a willow warbler (løvsanger). I can’t remember hearing this species singing in autumn either before.
Close encounters
I’ve had a couple of close encounters with birds the last couple of days:
1) My local robin (rødstrupe) has been getting braver and braver over the last week and yesterday came and joined me and even sang to me…this is the robin’s sub-song, much more subdued than the main song:
…and it had something caught around one of its feet…I thought initially it was plastic, but it looks natural, so it will hopefully free itself. Perhaps it was asking for help? :)
2) I noticed this feral pigeon (bydue) on the driveway picking up seeds (birch?). I’ve never seen a feral pigeon before in the garden and I’ve never even see the common woodpigeons (ringduer), that breed in the garden, on the driveway. The only time I’ve seen a pigeon/dove before on the driveway was a probable rare Mongolian Turtle Dove a couple of years ago in winter. I started filming and to my suprise it walked towards me and passed very close and continued towards the house. This behaviour wouldn’t be unusual in the city centre, but it still took me by surprise.
I went indoors and watched it feeding outside the kitchen….and then suddenly there was a commotion in the living room. It had walked into the house and tried to fly through the window glass and was stunned hung upside down amongst the Begonias! I managed to grab hold of it and it flew off…
…and sat on the outhouse roof before disappearing!
Close encounter with a cuckoo
On my bike ride to Ringve today, I saw a bird sitting on the path in front of me. I thought first it was a sparrowhawk that had its prey nearby, but no it was a first year cuckoo, which allowed me to get within 10m before it flew!
Biological control
This chiffchaff (gransanger) is doing its best to control the invasion of diamond back moths (kålmøll) larvae! On cress (karse) and radish (reddik) being grown for seed! I also observed house sparrows (gråspurv) feeding on them earlier today! I was cheering them on!
http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=23073
Woodpigeons and the opium poppy
I love to get up early on Sunday mornings, in particular in the holidays as there are few vehicles on the road, no aircraft flying in to the airport, no trains, no strimmers, no lawnmowers or chain saws….just me and the birds! Yes to noise free Sundays (mornings at least)!
Nutcracker song in the garden
Over the last week there’s been up to 4 Siberian nutcrackers (nøttekråker) in the garden. Unsure what they’re eating at the moment as the hazelnuts aren’t ripe yet, but they always appear at about this time.
Anyway, sitting in my outside “office” for breakfast I heard something I’ve never heard before….what I believe is its song, a strange assembly of grating and sweeter notes, heard (you’ll need high volume to hear it) up to about 0:35 when it’s raucous jay like call begins and it flies to the top of the tree!