My frustration at the lack of birds has been rather obvious of late but I had forgot about the fjord off Fornebu which last winter held exceptional numbers of seaduck due, apparently, to a vast hatch of young mussels which they fed on.

On Thursday after an uneventful walk around Fornebu we then checked out the sea and whilst the numbers of Common Eider, Velvet and Common Scoter were back to normal levels (20-30 of each species) we did have 7 Long-tailed Duck which is a very good count here and best of all Elvis, the long staying resident King Eider put in a rare appearance from land.

Also, a part of the fjord, Frognerkilen is an urban location best known for being able to feed the ducks and swans but there is also a small reedbed where I plan that one fine day I will add Bearded Tit to my Oslo list. A Kingfisher has recently been reported from here and after three attempts I also eventually saw it. Chatting to a man with a very long lens though revealed that he had been watching it for a couple of months and has managed to keep it quiet and not post (yet) any pictures on his SO ME so good on him and the bird!

One of my unsuccessful visits was enlivened though with a Jack Snipe which I think has been pushed out the reedbed due to a very high tide and was stood upon some floating reedstems.

The weather forecast shows no return to wintery weather in the foreseeable future and I am sure that Maridalsvannet will not freeze over until January at the earliest. And who knows maybe we are in for such a mild winter that it won’t freeze over at all which will be a first (though I think that I remember one previous winter without ice before January).