-20C

A walk around Maridalen in -20C is not necessarily an enjoyable experience and today I found that my gloves were not really up to the job. Although I didn’t suffer any damage to my extremities I have to say that taking a leak wasn’t a particularly comfortable procedure ;-)

The Hawk Owl from Saturday seems to have moved on looking for richer hunting grounds but Pine Grosbeaks are still present. This time I had a rare heard only record with at least four birds giving the “let’s move on” call about 30 metres away from me in the forest before then flying off although away from me such that I didn’t see them. Good numbers of Bullfinches (dompap) around the valley with at least 35 including a singing male.

Surprise of the day was a Dipper (fossekall) which flew twice over my head looking very lost. I was not near open water and assume that the recent drop in temperature had frozen it out of its winter territory and it was looking for somewhere new.