With a title like that I am raising expectations and this post may well end up being my longest ever but please bear with me as Friday was a day to be remembered in the annals of Oslo Birding.
I hadn’t intended to do much birding in the day. My
plan was to go out owling again in the evening and I just intended to go out
for a short reconnaissance trip in the middle of the day to better understand
the lay of the land and see if there were any paths into the forest where we
had heard the Tengmalm’s on Wednesday night. Quite soon after leaving the car
my chosen (new) path became an ice rink on a downward 20 degree slope and I was
forced to leave this path and go through the softer snow in the forest. I just
started wandering and enjoying the work out (walking through snow quickly
brings on a sweat). I ended up where we had heard the owl on Wednesday (but not
by a route I would attempt in the dark) and searched for nest holes. There were
few trees that were large enough for a Black Woodpecker hole but I did
eventually find a large pine with a fair sized hole (not entirely sure who had
made it as it did not look like a typical Black ‘pecker hole). Scraping on the
tree did not result in a head sticking out but some white droppings on the bark
of the tree suggested that a bird had spent time here.
I contented myself that I had found a possible nest
hole and was looking forward to an evening’s listening. Heading back towards
the car I decided to play the song of Pygmy Owl to aid me in determining the boundaries
of the Pygmy Owl territory in the area. What happened next was not what I
expected in a month of Sundays – a (the) Tengmalm’s Owl sang in the middle of
the day and from only ca.200m away! This was madness 😊
I made my way towards the sound and played Pygmy Owl
again. This resulted in a Pygmy answering and then later the Tengmalm’s sang
probably in response to the real Pygmy. I tried to ignore the Pygmy (I had
after all filled my boots just a couple of days ago) and set about looking for
possible nest sites for Tengmalm’s as my reasoning was that the bird would be
right next to a nest hole (I know of no nest boxes in the area). Problem was
that the forest was young and none of the trees were suitably large for a Black
Wood hole. I therefore changed tactic and started looking for a small lump in a
tree and straight away I noticed one!!! There it was - a Tengmalm’s Owl perched
on a branch about 5 metres above me. My footprints showed I had previously
walked underneath it and that gave me confidence that it was not going to be too
bothered by my presence. It was a bit obscured by twigs but I found an angle
and kneeled down in the snow to study it. He also wanted to study me and was staring
into my soul to start with. Then and probably as a result of my presence he sang
again. Insane!!! I was able to film some of it on my phone and although the
image is small and quality poor you can see the throat vibrating!!!
After this he started ignoring me and snoozed off
until a couple of Great Tits discovered him but even their scolding calls did
not cause him too much annoyance and they soon moved off. I saw droppings on
the bark of the tree that matched those I had seen earlier and there was also a
single pellet. Dissecting this at home and posting the picture on FB shows that
he had recently eaten a Bank Vole (klatremus).
It really was time for me to head home but I did
want to see the Pygmy Owls again. One had been calling only 50 meters away and
when I got there a quick burst of playback caused a bird to sing. Subsequent
observations revealed this to be the female giving a call that Sound Approach describe as “frustration hooting”. She kept on going and the then the male
started giving his song from nearby. This excited the female and I suspected
that I may witness some interaction between the two. The female was very close
to me (she had previously flown at my head) and I wanted to film her calling.
My phone had only 1% battery left so I chose to hand hold the bazooka. As will
be seen this was not very successful and when the male called from much closer
and the female started trilling I thought that I needed to switch to still
photos if I were to record anything. The result was that I recorded nothing but
I did watch mating Pygmy Owls at eye level just 5 metres from me. I was kicking
myself as I am sure this has been recorded very infrequently. On the other hand
though I was happy that I had seen it and had now confirmed that this pair are established
in this area which makes locating the nest later in the season easier.
My luck was not out though. About 10 minutes later
the female gave her “frustration hooting” again and the male responded. I stood
between the two and decided to use up the rest of the battery on the phone and
started filming to record the songs. The female flew in and perched behind me
and again I sensed that love was in the air. In these situations where time is
of the essence if one is to digitally record the behaviour I always seem to
panic a bit. I switched to the bazooka (the superzoom was stupidly in the car)
and started filming the female again. As she started getting more excited I
panicked and switched to still photos. This wasn’t an entirely wrong decision
as I did manage to record the act for prosperity but with a shutter speed of
only 1/320 sec it was not as sharp as I would like but these sort of love scenes
are often filmed in soft focus (so I am led to believe…).
So, to make a long post short: I found a
day roosting Tengmalm’s owl for only the second time in my life. I heard, saw
and filmed it singing in the daytime AND I saw and recorded Pygmy Owls mating.
Needless to say I did not feel the need to go out in the evening.
Going through the hundreds of pictures I took of the
Tengmalm’s I see that I got none of it looking at me without a twig in the way.
I did take lots of pictures from an angle without twigs in the way but somehow the
bird was always looking anywhere than at me. How is that possible?!?
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| daytime roosting Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle). Only the second time I have discovered one and only third time I have seen one like this. This is what you dream of! |
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| after his initial interest in me faded then he hardly batted an eyelid |
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| here I think a calling Raven flew over |
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| twigs! |
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| taken with the phone - the Tengmalm's was abot 5m up in a young spruce |
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| a pellet I found under the bird |
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| I dissected it at home and Facebook told me this was a Bank Vole (klatremus) |
And now the Pygmy Owl action.
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| this turned out to be the female |
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| she was very aggresive whereas the male only sang from a distance and turned up only to mate with her |
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| mating! |
and two videos. The first is taken with the phone and you hear the different songs of the male and female. The second is with the bazooka and records the female just before mating and then has the mating in a sequence of still photos
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| and a selfie with a Pygmy |
Wow, amazing, Simon!
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