Pygmy Owl in Maridalen

Pygmy Owl

 The inaugral Oslo and Akershus winter bird race is happening in a couple of weeks so I thought I would do a reccee of Maridalen by ski to see if there might be any reliabel sites for forest grouse or woodpeckers. Well the short answer is no but I did have a Pygmy Owl in the same place as December which is definitely a good sign for the race.

Also a young moose ran over the road in front of me.

Moose

For once the forest was not silent and I actually had good numbers of Tits with one flock containing 20 Great, 6 Coal and 4 Willow. The reason for the good numbers here is probably the close proximity of houses with feeding stations. Also 2 drumming Great Spotted Woodpeckers which is a pleasant sign of spring and a single Black Woodpecker.