Birds, Garden

Today’s garden birds

This weekend my students at the local secondary school are counting their garden birds. Of course I took part in this interesting project and counted the birds in my garden in the hours between 11 and 12 am. I also took some photoes, but that goes without saying 😉

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Chaffinch / Bókfinka

Weather: NE 12 m/sec, clear sky and temperature 0°C.
In this one hour I counted:
Redpolls  40
Starlings 27
Blackbirds 6
Chaffinches 4
Redwings 2
Blackcap 1

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Redpoll / Auðnutittlingur

Nú um helgina eru nemendur mínir í FSu að telja garðfuglana sína. Ég tók að sjálfsögðu líka þátt í þessu skemmtilega verkefni og taldi garðfuglana mína á milli kl. 11:00 og 12:00 í morgun. Jafnframt tók ég myndir af nokkrum tegundum.

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Starling / Stari

Niðurstaðan:
Auðnutittlingur  40
Stari 27
Svartþröstur 6
Bókfinka 4
Skógarþröstur 2
Hettusöngvari 1

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Birds, Garden

In the palm of my hand

In the winter time when it’s really cold outside the Redpolls come and eat from the palm of my hand. They like the seed blends you can buy for Canaries and Finches. You can usually buy them in grocery stores and pet stores.

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Holding them in your hand gives you a very special feeling which is not easy to describe.  You could say that I feel like I enjoy some privilege not everyone has access to. –It’s a wonderful feeling.

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Birds, Garden

The smallest bird in Europe

glokollur-5The Goldcrest is the smallest bird in Europe, weighing only 5-7 grammes. In 1996 the first known breeding in Iceland was confirmed and since then their numbers have increased. Today they are common breeding birds in spruce forrests.  For two years now they have been breeding  here and in spruce trees in adjoining gardens. We see these tiny little birds with their golden crown almost daily.

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Birds, Garden

Overnight guests

starar

Hundreds of Starlings stay in our garden every night. Just before dark they come from all directions and in huge flocks they fly in big circles before they land in the trees. They found this place to overnight 25 years ago and have now decided to return.

Starlings have overnighted in different places around Selfoss through the years, changing places regulary.

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Birds, Drawings

What bird is this?

Can you guess? Well, this is my Common Crossbill, a bit different from the one outside in the garden.

krossnefur I like drawing birds. Most of my bird-drawings originate from my imagination. They are usually not made to look like any special bird, they stand on their own and I would say they look like all birds, or no bird at all 😉

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Birds, Garden

Three different Finches

This autumn  three different finch species visited the garden. All rare birds in Iceland.

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Chaffinch / bókfinka

A male Siskin was here in the beginning of October, a female Brambling in the middle of October and now there are two Chaffinches, a pair.

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Brambling / fjallafinka

It is getting darker in the afternoon and difficult to get good photoes of the birds, especially on cloudy days like today.

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Siskin / barrfinka

But I managed to get these three photoes, –not as bad as I thought.

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Birds

Grey-cheeked Thrush

A Grey-cheeked Thrush Catharus minimus was spotted on Friday, October 31, in Hvolsvöllur (a small town 40 minutes drive east from Selfoss). The Thrush was still there today when I came to look for it. This is a new species for me and it is the fourth time it is seen Iceland. – I was able to add the 200th bird to my list and here is a photo I managed to catch while it was still bright enough 🙂

hlyratrostur-2

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Birds, Garden

Time flies – November is here

Next week the weather forecast is predicting colder weather. Then we can expect more birds in the garden. Today we have around 15 Redpolls, 10 Starlings, five Blackbirds, two Redwings,two male Blackcaps and a female Caffinch. There was also a Raven but they tend to stick to the treetops.

hrafn-2

We can usually see several Ravens in the sky above our house and by the river. They are a sight to see and you might think they were showing off their flight agility. Sometimes when they visit the garden they remind us of naughty kids, – full of mischief, sitting in the top of the trees breaking off branches and crowing loudly.

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Birds, Garden

Being different

hvitingi-2

Most of the Redpolls we see are just the ordinary Icelandic ones but once in a while you see an individual bird that stands out from the rest. This autumn we had a Redpoll that was quite different. It was a very beautiful and much whiter Redpoll than the ordinary ones.

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Early in 2011 we also had a Redpoll that was different. News spread around town of a small white bird that came into gardens with a group of Redpolls. The local paper even had some news on this peculiar bird. The bird turned out to be a white Redpoll. It was first spotted in autumn 2010 and was seen in Selfoss most days until the end of March 2011.
Read more in articles: White Redpoll

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