Life

Life has come in the way of birding this last week although I have managed to get out a bit. Today I had time to check on the Taiga Bean Geese and was hoping to find that the flock size had increased. The flock proved difficult to find though and when I did initially find them I could only see a handful of the birds with the rest being behind some trees. With the birds being so shy I didn’t dare to try to get closer to them but I do at least have an excuse to go looking for them again.

There is still a lot of snow on the ground and lakes are frozen so there are still very few migrants to see. Today I saw my first Mistle Thrush and Rough-legged Buzzard and heard a Snow Bunting but these are my first new birds since Oystercatcher a week ago.

The forecast is for overnight frosts to continue until early next week when it will suddenly get a lot warmer. This will hopefully result in snow melting and flooded fields and a surge of new birds.

I have managed a couple of nocturnal trips in the forest which have been quite successful. A dog walk on Wednesday night revealed a single Tengmalm’s and Tawny Owl. I had taken the superzoom with me but managed to forget my head torch which is a real shame as the Tengmalm’s was very close to me and I saw its silhouette. I went back without dog and with both torch and Per Christian who always brings me owl luck (is very good company too). This time we covered a larger area and heard 4 Tawny Owls and a single Tengmalm’s. One of the Tawnys was singing very actively exactly where I had the Tengmalm’s the night before and not surprisingly the Tengmalm’s did not reveal itself – Tengmalm’s must be a possible prey item for the larger Tawny. The Tengmalm’s we did hear was a couple of kilometers away in area where I have heard them in previous years and which will warrant a search for a nest later in the spring. Conditions were prefect for owling last night with no wind, a stary sky and light from a new moon. We therefore expected to hear a lot more – we did after all walk over 5km into the forest. This lack of owls (except for Tawny which seem to be everywhere this spring) suggests that there are few birds to go around after a number of bad breeding seasons in southern Norway. We need a good breeding season this year and continued good numbers of rodents next year for the population to build up again. We were out before it got dark in the hope of hearing Pygmy Owl (in previous years I have heard 2 singing birds in the area) and their absence is a real sign of how hard this species was hit by lack of rodents.

Tomorrow I am guiding and Pygmy Owl is a target but I do have that pair in another area to look for 😊

It's not often that the Taiga Bean Geese (taigasædgås) allow such close photos

here we see 6U and his mate 30 with the GPS collar. 6U was keeping look out a lot of the time whilst the female bird was busy feeding (she will need all the energy she can get if breeding is to be succesful)

my first Mistle Thrush (duetrost) of the year in a still snowy Maridalen. It was with a few Fieldfares (gråstrost) and Starlings (stær)

this hare met an early end when it tried to cross the road in Maridalen. The fur was amazingly white and soft and with no sign of the summer colours which will need to appear soon

this shot with the superzoom using flash did actually capture the Tengmalm's

I did manage to record it singing and also a couple of calls which I have not heard before.

both the overwintering Buzzards (musvåk) are still present in Maridalen and I have yet to see any new birds although they should arrive soon. This is the darker bird 

and here the plaer bird

and another predator