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Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) |
The night offered absolutely perfect conditions for owling
even if it was obviously not ideal for the owls themselves. There were no
clouds, not a breath of wind and a full moon. We would have heard an owl fart
at 10 kilometres range if they were there…
I am at a loss to explain why each trip (and this was my
sixth this spring) has had fewer birds and why the GGs have seemingly
disappeared. Either rodent numbers have declined after the snow melted such
that there is no longer enough food to support a breeding attempt or
alternatively there has been so much food that eggs have been layed and singing
is no longer a priority. Another explanation is that temperatures have
increased for each trip making the owlers time more comfortable and maybe the
Bird Gods only reward you if you really suffer for it.
I do feel that the Bird Gods favoured me though because the
encounter with bird on Thursday was more than I could ever hoped for, although
if I could make one complaint it would be that the owl was perched a bit too
high up and it could have made more an effort to look at me when it sang 😉
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Owl Road |
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filming the Tengmalm's |
I have also tried to get better film of the Long-eared Owl but three subsequent trips have resulted in worse views and in the end no views (or hoots) although I did manage some footage with the thermal imager.
Trips to Maridalen have not revealed any LEOs but Tawny Owls
have been in fine voice and I heard and recorded an interaction between a pair
that matches recordings of mating on The Sound Approach. They made a lot of
different noises including “chittering” which I understand to be from the
female at the time of mating.
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