Getting addicted again

I fear that I’ve had a bit too much Hawkie recently and that I have become addicted again. I was back up in Maridalen today enjoying the two Hawk Owls that apparently have been there for three weeks (shows how observant I am….). Whilst I never saw the two birds simultaneously it was clear there were two birds in the area and at one stage the bird I was watching started calling and it turned out from talking to Per Christian that the other one was very close by although unseen by me. 

Both birds had quite itchy feet and were never on the same perch for long unless it was really high up and they were preening. I discovered that at least one of the birds spent most of its time hunting within recently thinned out forest and here a lot of luck was needed to find it although once found it wasn’t too difficult to follow it as it flew from perch to perch looking for voles (which do seem to be very abundant). A single Great Grey Shrike and the Common Buzzard (although from pictures I see there are two birds still present) were also enjoying this abundance of food in the Dale.

Hawk Owl (haukugle)

Common Buzzard (musvåk)

just one Great Grey Shrike (varsler) showed today