Confirmation that there are still Great Grey Owls in
the Oslo area came this evening when an after dinner dog walk combined with
some driving practice for OB Jr revealed a roadside bird in the car headlights.
Many locals have expressed surprise when I have said that GG does most of its
hunting at night and that its levels of daytime activity are in correlation to
how successful it was the previous night – that it should be surprising that an
owl hunts at night was surprising to me. Anyhow, it was satisfying to find one
hunting at night. It was also interesting to see it disappear into the dark and
fly over a field that was at least 200m wide - they clearly can cover very
large areas at night in their search for a vole or two.
This was my fourth after dark visit in the last
month and in addition to the GG was the first time I have heard an owl
of any type with a Tawny hooting away.
This gives me renewed belief that I will find GG
during the day as I have more guiding this week starting tomorrow morning – at least
I have a good pointer as to where to start the search.
Digitally captured on the superzoom which works surprisingly well in the dark.
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