This afternoon the biggest flock of Jackdaws (kaie) ever recorded in this area assembled in the field below the house before flying off towards the roost at dusk with hooded crows (kråke)!! Some 1600 birds (counted from the first video)! It’s been around -10C all day today!
Category Archives: Birds
Flock of woodpeckers?
I’ve never seen more than 2 great spotted woodpeckers (flaggspett) at one time in the garden, so it was a surprise to see 3 of them around the bird feeder yesterday! Does 3 qualify as a flock?
Look closely and you can see 3 woodpeckers:
Picture taken from the film:
RIP Bombycilla garrulus
It doesn’t happen very often but the last few days at least 3 waxwings (sidensvans) flew into a window on the house, two of which recovered (have put something in the window to discourage them). Probably discoordinated after partying too hard on fermenting apples :(
I can only remember once finding a dead waxwing next to the house (and on occason there can be up to 1,000 of them in the garden).
THE BIRDS
A large flock of some 150 jackdaws (kaie) decided to party in the garden this afternoon, then a large flock of over 450 birds appeared over the bay!
Waxwings on apples
I sorted my stored apples yesterday and put out ones that had begun to rot for the waxwings and thrushes outside the kitchen window. This was the scene this morning!
Bombycilla garrulus and Coccothraustes coccothraustes
How DO they make up those scientific names? A small group of waxwings (sidensvans) in the garden with 4 hawfinches (kjernebiter) provided entertainment (distraction) this afternoon….waxwings are berry eaters (e.g. the flesh of rowans / rogn) and hawfinches eat hard tree and fruit seeds (also rowan, eating what the waxwings disgard!)
I try to “grow” as much food for birds as possible in my garden. This includes leaving some fruit, planting various species of rowan (Sorbus), not tidying the garden until late winter, so that, for example, seed of nettles and burdock is available for finches. I also don’t feed the birds with bought in sunflower seeds until it gets properly cold, until then there’s plenty of natural food available. There’s nowadays a large acreage put down to non-organic production of bird seed in other countries which is certainly detrimental to birdlife in those countries and there is evidence that providing bird seed during the breeding season can have a negative effect on some species! So, is feeding birds a good thing or just for our entertainment? A bit of both I think!
- Hawfinch and waxwings towards the end…taken from the living room /office!
2. Waxwing on apple. It was a bad rowan berry year and there are unusually few waxwings around (perhaps good news for an invasion further south, e.g., in the UK?). This is one of the apples I left for the birds…the video was taken from the living room!
Jackdaw acrobatics
A flock of some 150 jackdaws were having fun this morning playing acrobatics in the wind!
The return of the Goldfinches
Sitting at my desk this morning I noticed the winter’s first goldfinch (stillits) sitting having a scratch in a tree in the garden (first video)….and the rest of the flock of more than 10 birds were feeding on burdock (borre) in the garden. The first ever large flocks of goldfinches started overwintering in my area in my garden in 2003 and have been a regular feature ever since, attracted to seed of burdock which I’ve been growing as vegetables in the garden for many years! Nowadays this bird has established itself in the lowlands around the Trondheimsfjord! This is another reason why winter is the most beautiful time of year here, despite the loss of direct sunshine for several weeks!
Blackcap on yew berries
The male blackcap (munk) was this morning feeding on yew berries (a garden variety “Hicksii”). This yew is right next to the kitchen window and has attracted several fruit eating species including blackbird (svarttrost), redwing (rødvingetrost), fieldfare ( gråtrost), waxwings (sidensvans) and last night for the first time a song thrush (måltrost).
Blackcap on apples
At least one, maybe two blackcaps (munk in Norwegian) were foraging on my apple trees most of today.