Three-toed Woodpeckers

My lack of blogging recently is explained by illness with a flu like virus (tested negative for covid) knocking me out for a long time. It doesn’t like I have missed much though with overnight frosts deterring all but the hardiest of migrants.

I still had to get out as a dog needs walking and a child needs delivering to school so I have stopped in Maridalen and Østensjøvannet but it wasn’t until yesterday that I was able to get out for a proper walk.

A single Snow Bunting in the Dale was an expected but still very welcome early spring migrant and has been followed by a single Starling but no other new migrants have arrived (Skylarks and Wood Pigeons remain).

Trips into Maridalen yesterday and today were good though. Yesterday I finally reconnected with Three-toed Woodpecker and I revisited these birds again today and had very good views of a pair together drumming and feeding. Yesterday I also had a drumming and calling male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and a Pygmy Owl so some quality birds were found. The Three-toed Peckers were in a usual area but this won’t necessarily be where they settle down to breed as that decision is not normally taken until the end of April but they should be in the same general area for a few weeks at least.

A quick stop at Østensjøvannet earlier in the week revealed a photogenic Wood Mouse which was suddenly snatched and then eaten by a Magpie. I failed to catch the snatch and grab but did film the eating.

male Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett)

male below who was drumming a lot while the female was just preening herself although she had been drumming earlier

female feeding (note bill is in branch)

compare the amount of bark on the branch in this photo when she had just started and the previous picture

The video has the sound of the male drumming at the beginning, then the sound of the female calling (may be difficult to hear) and then both birds drumming in tandem

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

and here with an angry Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett) flying towards it

my first Snow Bunting (snøspurv) of 2022

and my first Starling (stær) a week later

a Magpie (skjære) that is rather unhappy with a large adult female Goshawk (hønsehauk)

Wood Mouse (småskogmus)

Coot (sothøne)

displaying Goldeneyes (kvinand)

a very large bird over Maridalen. An F35 that curiously flew with its landing gear down and was also at low alltitude

the first breeding plumaged Black-headed Gull (hettemåke) of the year

Coot feet

flyby Mute Swans - they were checking out Østensjøvannet but a pair was already on the only small area of open water and these didn't dare land