Wednesday, June 10, 2015

"Feed Me" ... Birding in Oslo

Gyrfalcon chick on its nest
Moorhen chicks
After feeding the babies, mother bird leaves nesting box to get more food.
Swans with chicks
Wednesday our bird guide Simon took us around Oslo to wonderful fresh-water lakes where ducks, geese, and swans are breeding, and to open fields and wooded areas. He told us how he'd been watching an owl's nest (the owlets were all fledged and gone so we didn't visit). He showed us a beaver dam and a gyrfalcon chick waiting in its huge nest for its parents to feed it, and a woodpecker hole from which the chick was incessantly chirping to remind its parents to bring food, and several active nesting boxes of other birds. He was really excited to see a colorful butterfly that normally doesn't migrate up here from Africa until much later in the season. He found a wren's nest on the side of a bluff, almost invisible to the numerous passers-by.

Simon showing Len a bird
Simon is English, and reminded me sometimes of Shakespeare's character Puck, immersed in nature and creatures.
Black-faced gull with chicks almost as large as it is.
Grebe chick taking a ride on parent's back.

1 comment:

Jeanie said...

Oslo Norway? What wonderful birds you are encountering there! But a LONG way to go birding!