Pygmy Owl

Hazel Grouse is a species that is good to have staked out for guiding so I intend to use some time to get to know exactly where birds have territories this autumn and hopefully I will get payback for this later (if and when Covid-19 restrictions allow foreigners to visit without quarantining).

Currently feeding conditions are such that birds are seemingly using large areas as I am not finding birds in the same place two days on the trot. I am finding birds though and fairly easily. Yesterday I had two birds in the same area which I think were rival males rather than a pair. One bird was very cooperative and I got to see it both on the ground and perched in trees. Taking pictures of this species is always a challenge though: it is dark within the forest and they choose to walk or perch where they are protected so there are nearly always branches in the way and the autofocus (or at least mine) has huge problems locking onto the correct thing. With enough patience though they show in the open and as long as you don’t muck it up by having the wrong camera settings then an acceptable picture should be achieved. Today I had lots of out of focus shots and wasted opportunities but did walk away with some shots I am very happy with. In addition to the usual high pitched song of the male I also heard (for the first time) a quiet bubbling call which I have previously understood is the call of the female but unless there was an unseen female hiding behind the male then it seems that males also make this call.

I came across a large mixed tit flock today which had quite a few other species with it: Long-tailed, Blue, Willow, Great & Coal Tits plus Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Nuthatch and Chiffchaff but the absence of finches is really noticeable. After last autumns bumper seed and berry crop (which was apparently in response to the very dry summer of the year before) it seems that the forest has nothing to give this year and a couple of Bramblings flying over were the only finches I noted.

I saw lots of signs of rodents though and had a VERY happy meeting with a Pygmy Owl. This species is usually the most likely owl you will encounter in Oslo’s coniferous forests but after rodent numbers crashed at the end of 2018 there have been hardly any observations and in 2020 there have been more Great Grey Owls seen (the first Oslo record was only in autumn 2019..) than Pygmy Owls! My last Oslo sighting of Pygmy Owl was on 7 Dec 2018 although I did hear one last October so to hear and then track down and spend some quality time with a male today was magic 😊

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

male Hazel Grouse (jerpe)

 

there were still at least 4 Common Buzzards (musvåk) in Maridalen. Hopefully some Rough-leggeds will come soon

I got close enough to this frog to see the reflection in its eyes