No more Cold Turkey

Today was spent in the Dale. Despite there still being snow on the ground in shaded areas it was hot in the sun and the lake is one third ice free now.

I had hoped to find Snow Buntings or my first Mistle Thrush of the year but will evidently have to wait a bit longer. Skylarks were back in force though, Lawing and Starling are clearly back for the summer and a Reed Bunting flew over so it felt spring like. A flock of 16 Whooper Swans flew north whilst the breeding pair was checking out there still frozen breeding site. I saw my first adders of the year aswell.

I had really started looking forward to spring migration and felt that my addictions were behind me. A casual walk in the forest revealed that to not be the case though when a GG presented itself! I have been going through all my pictures and have been able to individually identify the owls that have been in the valley this winter. I will have a big post on this later but can say that today’s bird is one (probably a female based on size) that has been seen at a number of sites (upto 4km apart) since 19 December but which I had not documented since 12 Feb.

I also spoke with a togger and found out that he had seen a grouse a few days ago. There have been a number of records of white grouse this winter in lowland areas of southern Norway. There is a tendency to assume they are Willow Grouse but as I found out the hard way that is a very foolish assumption to make (ref. the Oslo Ptarmigan in 2015). Also the majority of (the few) birds that have been photographed well this winter have turned out to be Ptarmigan including one by the coast in the town of Moss south of Oslo today. Without photos or dna from droppings the birds from this winters invasion should be recorded as unidentified Willow Grouse/Ptarmigan but that does not result in a tick so not many do so....

my first Adder of the year

salt licking Crossbill (grankorsnebb)

migrating Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

the breeding pair

Today's dose of GG which I thought I was cured of. Note the very different postures and "jizz" in the photos

here the bird was reacting to the Beast and adopted a very erect and slim posture

this bird has a squint in its left eye which I have also noted previously