OSLO BIRDER: Weekend away and good owling

I have just come back from a couple of nights with Per Christian at his cabin in the mountains where both good company and good birds made for a superb and much needed weekend away. We went owling on the way up and it all started very well when at 8pm (just before sunset) we heard three singing Pygmy Owls and I was very excited as to what we would hear once it got dark but amazingly enough we did not hear any other owls in that area. It seems that the occurrence of Tengmalm’s and Great Grey Owls is very local this year with clearly good vole numbers in only certain restricted areas.

We were listening for owls quite away from the cabin and when we finally arrived there just after midnight we were amazed to hear a Long-eared Owl singing! This was right on the tree line at 950m above sea level and not where I was expecting to see one. We were able to see it flying in the torch light and also heard wing clapping and bill snapping. We had a late night as we stayed up chatting and having a beer or two but I was awake at 0730 with a need to get rid of some of that beer. The cabin is a proper cabin with an outside toilet. I am perfectly OK with this but when the temperature is -10 C then you don’t want to spend too long doing your business 😉 The sound of displaying Black Grouse not too far away made me forget the cold for a bit though.

Birding during the day revealed two young Golden Eagles together although not the Siberian Jays or Hawk Owl which PC has often seen in the area. We were really just waiting for it to get dark again though so we could search for owls again. This time we heard Tengmalm’s and then got to see the Long-eared Owl really well as he sang in our torch light. I have only heard them sing twice before and never like this. It is a deep hooting (similar to Great Grey Owl) and whilst it travels a long way it sound quiet no matter how close you are to it which makes it difficult to pin point where the bird is.

It really was a magical experience and I nearly didn’t notice how cold my hands were.

Today we had snow in Maridalen (although it fell as rain lower down). This was the first precipitation for weeks and I was hoping that it would mix up the bird scene. Things originally seemed very quiet but I then found that all the birds were on one field. There was a huge finch flock of about 1000 birds split 60:40 Chaffinch and Brambling with a few Twite, Greenfinch and Linnet thrown in.

Before the weekend I had fun with Snow Buntings in Maridalen with a flock of 13 feeding on the ice on the lake and seemingly finding lots to eat. Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers continue to be numerous with three birds (seemingly a pair and additional female) making a lot of noise and performing display flights with a lone female in another area drumming away. Two pairs of Black Woodpeckers included one mating and the other nest building. A flock of 52 Twite was the largest I have ever seen there and a migrating Rough-legged Buzzard was an early bird.

My first visit of 2022 to Nordre Øyeren produced an early Green Sandpiper but a couple of Rooks flying over was a big surprise as this species is very scarce around Oslo.

In this video the hooting of the Long-eared Owl can be heard quite well. Notice also how it puffs its throat out when singing

Long-eared Owl (hornugle)

And a video taken with my phone where you can hear a couple of Pygmy Owls (spurveugle) duetting, a Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) and the Long-eared Owl who you can also see in flight. The sound is quite low so you may need a speaker to hear everything