The Oystercatchers have left the building...

But there's a new pair of birds in the house! Well, on the house anyway :) According to the comments there are actually several new birds on the roof, but the camera is now showing a nesting Common Gull (Larus Canus, the North American variety is also called Mew Gull). There are also two pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus Fuscus) with new chicks :)

As you can see the nest is not in the same spot as the Oystercatchers', but it's not very far away. The Oystercatcher chick is actually still roaming around up there, but it's a large roof, so I doubt he will be seen on camera again. Here are some funny pictures of the little darling:

Despite the parents' best effort to hatch that last egg (they even tried to feed it!), it never hatched, and on Thursday the family finally left the nest for good.

This week the egg was checked, and they found it had not been fertilized, which is sort of good. Another year one of the chicks had died just days from hatching :( But this year's chick (now named Tjeldrik) is growing and doing just fine! He has been weighed and ringed so we can find him again when he grows up :) He will stay on the roof for another week or two, then he'll jump the 20m down on the lawn and join his parents in the park :)

(Picture from Facebook)

I really should be studying...

But I've been so caught up in watching the Oystercatchers that progress has been slow... Here are some pictures (from Monday) of the first new-born:

Just look at those cute little feet! The mother/father is being a good parent and removing the eggshell so it won't attract predators.

The family together :)

Oops, he fell out of the nest and mother/father comes to help!

A few snapshots from yesterday. He's a little more steady on his feet, but is still bouncing around a lot :)

Mother/father brings a yummy earthworm for lunch.

Boo!

It's nice to be an Oystercatcher napping in the sun :)

I have no pictures from today, because he spends less and less time at the nest. The parents are leaving the last egg for longer and longer periods, so I guess they'll give it up soon. Which is a little sad and strange, since they usually have three chicks. Well, I should get back to studying...

The first chick has hatched!

The first of the Oystercatcher chicks hatched today! :D You can see a little of it of the gray fuzz-ball behind the egg shell:

Look at this adorable little creature:

The second chick will probably hatch tomorrow, since the egg was laid about a day later, so keep watching, people! :)

Hooray for Norway!

Today's the national day of Norway, our Constitution is 196 years old :) It's celebrated by parades and people wearing nice clothes and eating lots of good food (= hamburgers, sandwitches & hot dogs) and ice cream. All the kids run around and blow in whistles and toy trumpets that make horrible sounds, and then some inmportant people and the king give speeches. To finish the day there is usually fireworks in the bigger towns. This is what that looked like tonight from the Oystercatcher's view (the picture is black&white because it's dark outside):

I haven't really celebrated it for years, it's too noisy and crowded and the weather is always bad. We did celebrate a little, because Bollan and her family wanted to. Click HERE for the whole story :)

I just take it as a good day to relax, watch TV and do nothing useful, except crocheting a lot :D

The oystercatchers are back!

Every spring/summer the last few years there has been a pair of oystercatchers nesting on the roof of one of the university's buildings, and a webcam has been put up there right by the nest. It's not really bothering the birds, you get to see them doing whatever they do, cleaning up around the nest, grooming, sleeping and almost getting blown away in bad weather. They are so cool, and the chicks are even cuter :D I've been checking the page often and looking for the birds almost every day the past two weeks, and two days ago they finally arrived :) Here is a picture of the pair collecting stones for their nest. You can see an egg by the wall. Two more will probably be laid soon.

The page is both in Norwegian and English, and you can choose how often the picture updates, from 1 to 30 seconds. Streaming video will be up some time later :)