Many kilometres, few birds

Today was not a good day. As someone who cares for the environment I drove far, far too much and as a birder I saw far, far too few birds.

I am rather confined to the car for the next few week as a visit to the doctor revealed that a knee that has been getting more and more painful over the last weeks has a meniscus tear and rest and physiotherapy are the initial prescription and will hopefully negate the need for any surgery. I decided to use the fantastic weather to take a very long tour through forest areas in the north and east of Akershus County. As usual with these types of trips it is owls, crossbills, woodpeckers and Grosbeaks that are the targets. Being inside a car obviously means that you will miss many birds but by covering large areas you actually have a good chance of picking up birds perched on the tops of trees which they often do when there is no wind and sun a there was today.

Well the forests were dead quiet! My grand total of half-interesting birds was a Pygmy Owl (spurveugle), a Black Woodpecker (svartspett) and a Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) of which only the later made it onto the hard drive although the photo only just gets into the “dok. foto” category.

Even the Vorma River which last week had held lots of wildfowl was very quiet probably because much colder temperatures have caused birds to move on.

 

that this distant, underexposed woodpecker is a Three-toed cannot be ascertained by counting the toes but the thin slightly upward pointing bill plus the white stripe down the back reveal its identity