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The weather has improved now with little wind and rain but it is still cloudy which means that we have not been witness to the fantastic display of Northern Lights that many people have seen elsewhere, and further south, in Europe.

In Maridalen one of the Pygmy Owls put on a real show on Saturday (when I wasn’t there) right by the road and in front of many photographers caught 5 mice in the course of an hour and stowed them away in a woodpecker hole. Just look at this picture!

Yesterday when I was in Maridalen I discovered probably the same owl a few hundred metres away and this time (s)he was sticking her head out of a nestbox with a gang of tits outside alarm calling. I believe she had probably just taken a mouse in there. After this she spent quite a bit of time looking out of the hole seemingly in hunting mode before flying out and perching nearby and then definitely looking down for food. She did not catch anything whilst I watched but once a number of photographers had discovered me and the owl I thought it time to move on and of course I heard she did catch a mouse later on

Moving on did pay dividends though as I got to see the Grey-headed Woodpecker but it wasn’t just a single bird but two! They were often together and at first I thought both were females but one of them had a tiny red spot on the crown which I believed makes it a 1cy male (but after reading BWP this seems to be possible on adult females and a young male should have more red). They spent a lot if time feeding on old farm buildings and clearly found a lot of food.

It was generally quite birdy in the Dale with for example a very late flock of 11 Meadow Pipits (although, and unsurprisingly, I could not refind the Tree Pipit) and I picked out an Arctic Redpoll again but most surprising sighting was a pair of Long-tailed Ducks flying north – has the change in weather made them think it is spring?

the worst picture first but it documents the most surprising observation - a pair of Long-tailed Ducks (havelle) heading north

Grey-headed Woodpecker (gråspett) from this angle it is probably not possible to see if it has the red feathers on the crown

both birds

on a roof..

here is the bird with red crown feathers (1cy male or adult F?)

here the female with no red on the crown

Grey-headed are not like other woodpeckers!

I know this was the male (see video) but the red is not visible from this angle

red feathers

red feathers

and the definite female

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) and the Blue Tits (blåmeis) that gave her away

here it appeared to be hunting from the nest box

when it left the nest box it seemed to be very alert and flicked its tail a lot as though it was a Wren!

Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik)

a White Wagtail (linerle) seen on Sunday which is my latest record in Oslo