If you want something done, you have to do it yourself!

Well, the Mediterranean Gull has been seen almost everyday the last week. The problem was that the bird was visible only some minutes every day! Large amounts of small gulls migrated over Frognerparken at the evening, and sometimes the Med was seen together with them. The bird has to be somewhere during the day! With that in mind I took a trip to Oslo to look for gulls.

The Med Gull always came in from north in the evening. So that was the place to look. I started of by a short look at Frognerparken, but only two Black-headed sat on the ice. With no gull in the park, I walked north against Majorstuen. Here I filled up the bag with old bread from Rema 1000, and started looking at the gulls on the roof. 200 meters up Kirkeveien I saw two small gulls on a chimney. Binoculars where pointed at them, and the bird that was turned away was looking good. A Med Gull on the chimney! I walked around and tried to feed the birds. Not hard at all. All the birds in the area came, but they rarely landed.

Most likely the Med has been in the area from Majorstuen to Marienlyst all the time since it last was under control. The only problem is that nobody has been looking for it!

Simon (and every body else!), now you may have a chance to see the bird in 2012! Not all of us needed 10 trips ;)

Med Gull on the ground!

The Iceland at Frogn is still present!

Still White-winged and Mediterranean Gull

Today there was still one Iceland Gull at Skiphelle. Today I have been there to look at it.

The Mediterranean Gull was again seen at Frognerparken this evening. The bird have never been there during the day, but have migrated south in the evening almost every time it has been seen. Where are the bird during the day? Just to start looking!

Common Gull - variation

One photos from Frognerparken last weekend (14.01) of a Common Gull:

2cy Common Gull

Late developed, and dark overall, to be a 2cy in January. Still don't think that there is any reason to think about Mew or other ssp. Ends with a normal coloured Common in January.

Crazy winter in Norway!

As I wrote about the 13., a lot of white gulls have been seen this winter in Norway. When we look at Icelands, it seems impossible to come up with a sensible number. But a quick count of Artsobservasjoner gave 115 different birds only today! 55 of these in Sør-Trøndelag. The one location with most birds was Uthaug Havn, ST with 24 individuals! It also seems like the second Kumlien's from Sandsøya only was the start of a bigger wave of this ssp. Today a lot more Kumlien's where found in Sør-Trøndelag. When will the first Thayler's show up?! Here is a compare photo of the number of Iceland Gull records from January 2012 v.s. January 2011:

The Glaucous was back at Vaterland today. Let us look at one more photos from some days ago.

White Gulls!

So far this winter a lot of Glaucous Gulls and Iceland Gulls have been found along the coasts of Norway. Some in Oslo and Akershus as well. Two Glaucous and one Iceland so far. At the Faraoes they have over hundred Iceland right now, about 30 Kumlien's. It have also been one Kumlien's in Norway this winter, one at Sandsøya 11 January.

Photo: Ingar Støyle Bringsvor

Today, Ingar, found the second Kumlien's gull of the year! Also at Sandsøya.

Still Glaucous Gull

The one Glaucous is still at Vaterland. It is the same bird that has been stationary here for some time now. The bird from Bjørvika isn't been seen since the day I found it. Today the Glaucous was also ringed by Morten Helberg, and colorring with number JP376 is placed on left foot.

No Mediterranean today...

Med Gull and lookalike!

Took a search on Langvannet today. It resulted in the same lookalike as before Christmas. It sat at the usual place on land in south. The Mediterranean Gull from yesterday was also seen today at Frongerparken.

Mediterranean Gull

The MedGull from before Christmas was refound today! After near 2 weeks without sightings. The bird was found today at Frognerparken by Jan Erik Berglihn. Yesterday Simon Rix was on a trip to try to refind the bird, without any results.

So where has the bird been? Has it been in Oslo all the time, or has it been in the fjord? Most likely is maybe that the bird has been in Oslo all the time, maybe explored some new and undiscovered places. Like Smedstaddammen, upper part of Akerselva, or some other low alert places. It can also absolutely have been on Aker Brygge almost all the time! The bird seemed to have been some frightened by the ringing, and had more safety distance after the session. Maybe the bird needed some time to get used to the ring, took some longer trips out in the fjord, and have now returned for at least the rest of the winter?

We can only wait and see! Where the bird will be seen next time?

Glaucous Gulls

Late yesterday evening, a Glaucous Gull where found by John Martin Mjelde, Carsten Lome and Morten Helberg at Vaterland in Oslo. We desided to take a trip to get photos and look at this rare OA bird. We stopped at Bjørvika, and imminently saw a Glaucous in Bispevika. We thought that this was the bird from Vaterland the day before (only 500 meters away), but when John Martin came and said that it had been seen a Glaucous in Vaterland at the same time as we send BMS-message about our gull, it was clear that it wasn't the same bird! This is extremely rare in OA, and I think it is the first time two Glaucous is seen at the same time here. Still, there could have been some communication error, so we had to take a look at the bird at Vaterland. When we came up, there wasn't any Glaucous to be seen anywhere, but after a while it showed up. But was this the same bird that we had said earlier in Bjørvika. After image studies it is clear that there was two Glaucous Gulls in Oslo this day!

Bispevika - Photo: Rune Christensen.
Compare bill and tertials with photo under

Vaterland
Compare bill and tertials with photo over

Some colour-rings would have done it much simpler!

Herring Gulls, Langvannet

 I will try to begin a blog about gull sightings in Oslo and Akershus, Norway. The photos and sightings will mainly come from Langvannet in Lørenskog, but other places will be written about if there are rare or interesting gulls discovered there.

Will start off with a set of gulls from Langvannet today 05.01.2012:

Interesting tail pattern from beneath (sorry bad quality)

(rear bird) Compare with classic argentatus

Quite dark for January

Not as interesting from above, but still unlike classic argentatus

There has also been a probable argentatus at the location for a while. Today the bird wasn't seen. Still one bird showed some similarities. Still scapulars is very different, so not the same bird! The 2011-bird has distinct scapular-feathers

05.01.2012

05.01.2012

11.11.2011, last seen 12.12.2011

11.11.2011, last seen 12.12.2011