Great Grey Guiding

So, this weekend was my first guiding to the Great Grey Owls that I found at easter. In Feb 2020 I had guided Darrel and a couple of mates for the taiga trio. We had failed to see Great Grey Owl that time and since then Darrel has asked me at least once a year whether there are any GGs to be seen 😊. He has had to be patient but finally this year I could inform him that GGs were a go go.

Darrel, Mike and Richard flew over with Ryan Air on Saturday and I picked them up from the airport around 1pm. We headed north straight away and the day was a bit of a roller coaster but ended on a definite high. Both Ural Owl and Tengmalm’s Owl failed to show at nests where I was confident we would see them but a singing Ortolan Bunting was a real bonus and will perhaps be the last territorial bird in Norway with the species not having been expected to return to its historical breeding sites this year.

I had of course saved the target bird for last and we were really in for a treat as we spent over 2 hours with the GGs. The female was on the nest and although we never saw any young I think from the way she was sitting that there may well have been a newly hatched youngster or two under her but she was also clearly incubating eggs. For a long time the female did nothing but look around often with her tail cocked but she did give her “I’m hungry” call a few times not that we could see the male. Then after a while she gave her excited chittering call and the male glided silently in with a vole that she took from him immediately. Our focus then turned to the male who perched openly and glared at us for a while before having a nap.

We then left them to see if we could find any hunting owls and succeeded with a roadside Great Grey right by a couple of Moose 😊

It was a long day and we were back in Oslo at midnight and I was glad to be able to get out of the car after a lot of driving.

The next morning was time for Maridalen’s finest and we caught up with Hazel Grouse, Three-toed Woodpecker, Wryneck and Black Woodpecker although not all were particularly photogenic.

Other interesting species we had over the two days were Crested Tit, Woodcock, Crane, Tree Pipit, Pied Flycatcher and Wood Warbler.

 

As usual when guiding I do not put much focus into my own pictures which was quite easy as the auto focus is broken on the bazooka but I did of course take some photos as well as quite a bit of video which is much better

the female Great Grey Owl (lappugle) on the nest

the male after delivering food to his mate

singing male Ortolan Bunting (hortulan)

a female Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett) in Maridalen

this hole had held a family of Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) a week or so ago but there was no sign of life when we were there. The Camberwell Beauty (sørgekåpe) butterfly was scant replacement