And now for something completely different, well nearly..

Today I managed to pull myself away from my Oslo owls although I didn’t end up going cold turkey. Anders and I decided on a trip to Kurefjorden and on the way I thought I would take a short detour to follow up a report of a bird seen from a car by a non-birding friend on Saturday. I had my suspicions as to what this bird was, and despite it being a lot shot that I would refind it, they sure enough were correct 😊

do you see what it is?

Over night snow had left the landscape white so it was a real surprise to find a Lapwing at Kurefjorden but other birds we had there were winter visitors with Smew, Slavonian Grebe, Rough-legged Buzzard and Rock Pipit being the pick.

On the way home we also picked up Great Grey Shrike and Pine Grosbeak so a good days birding was had.

The next four days I am guiding three different “crews” of Brits to see Great Grey and Hawk Owls so it will be back to service as normal on the blog front 😂 (I also took some cracking GG photos yesterday including catching a mouse that I will have to find time to publish)

Pine Grosbeak (konglebit)

there were 4 Grosbeaks today in a very urban location (right by a petrol station) although it was a bit too urban to take lots of photos with a big lens

Rock Pipit (skjærpiplerke) - a normal view on a rock at long range

Rough-legge Buzzard (fjellvåk) is scarce this winter

here's a closer view of the mystery bird - note the snow on its face