Grey-headed Woodpecker

Winter has strengthened its grip with a new big dump of snow over the weekend and it will be a long while before the first migrants turn up around Oslo even though there are always signs that spring is coming. The days are getting longer and a bit of sun is all that is need for birds to start singing and this morning a Collared Dove was singing in the garden – a sound I definitely do not hear very often.

I needed to move my body today so went on a hike in the forest to search for a Grey-headed Woodpecker seen at the weekend. Luckily there was a winter open road to walk on (a barrier stopped me driving it) which made things a bit easier. The 2km walk was incredibly birdless with just a Nutcracker noted but when I got to the area of cabins where the woodpecker had been seen there were loads of birds that were obviously attracted to food that is put out. Bullfinches, Blue, Great and Coal Tits were all in double figures and amongst them were Willow Tit, Crested Tit, Nuthatch, Jay, Redpoll, Great Spotted Woodpecker and after a short wait the female Grey-headed ‘pecker. She didn’t show at the very close range that I had hoped for but was a nice sighting of a bird I normally only see 1 or 2 of each year.

I met the owner of the cabin who was a real outdoors man who spends his time tracking and filming wolves and was very upset that he would have to buy a smart phone as his new electric car required the use of an app if he was to charge it at a public charger 😉

female Grey-headed Woodpecker (Gråspett)

jizz look surprisingly like a Three-toed 'pecker

Bullfinches (dompap)

In the filed I thought this Redpoll was an arctic in the field but these pictures suggest that it is a common with too much black straking on the undertail coverts, black streaks within the white rump (which looks so large because the bird is preening and has its feathers puffed up) and and a too large bill