Winter so far has been extremely mild by the Oslofjord. Not a lot of birds this time of year, but always some interesting encopunters.

The highlight of the last month has been a nice male Stonechat (svartstrupe) on the beach near my house at Hvasser. It has been feeding in the beds of kelp washed up on the shore. Not a very common bird in this area, but records have increased over the last years.

The kelp-beds are also feeding ground for a good number of Rock Pipits (skjærpiplerke) that regularly spends the winter here. We always check them out carefully, in hope of one of the rare and very similar species – without luck so far.

A few late Meadow Pipits (heipiplerke) are still around well into December…

…and so was a few White Wagtails (linerle).

Small flocks of Bohemian Waxwings (sidensvans) have been around. In lack of berries, they have been feeding on rose hips – some of them almost too big to swallow!

A Nuthatch (spettmeis) had learned from the woodpeckers how to get into a hazelnut.

One day, from the car, we noticed a Goshawk (hønsehauk) sitting on a small roadside lawn. It had just killed and eaten a squirrel – only the tail was left. Returning half an hour later, it was still sitting there, so we drove home and grabbed the camera, and fortunately the bird was still on the same spot when we came back. The bird, a big, bulky female, was obviously quite filled up, and not eager to fly away, and I could approach it down to around five meters distance. Eventually it took off to some nearby trees.

We also had a successful trip to the woods of inner parts of Vestfold County, where a Eurasian Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) was singing and showing well in the low light at dawn.