Pygmy Owl in sunlight

There are at least 3 Pygmy Owls in Maridalen at the moment and on Sunday I finally got to see the one that everyone else is seeing (not that I haven’t tried) and in sunshine. It was clearly hunting for rodents and made one unsuccessful attempt to catch something. This is in contrast to previous years when the owls have been seen to catch many rodents in quick succession. There have been quite a few news articles about this being a rodent winter but it is clearly still quite local.

Østensjøvannet proved to be half frozen today not that that really caused there to be much in the way of new birds although I did have a single Common Snipe and the Scaup was still present.

A nice surprise at home was a flock of 29 Waxwings that briefly visited an apple tree that still has fruit on it. There are very few Waxwings around this winter but I had been counting on them visiting at least once.

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

a classic pose when it has heard something

the female Pintail (stjertand) at Østensjøvannet was along with the Mallards clearly hoping I had food

these two Goldeneyes (kvinand) with bills that are turning yellow must be young females

good numbers of Herons (gråhegre) show there must also be a lot of fish

the ice had concentrated all the remaining (9) Moorhens (sivhøne) and I assume now that all but one or two will move off over night

this really is not a finch winter with seemingly no wintering birds other than resident birds. This (Lesser) Redpoll is a rare sight at the momemnt

the Scaup (bergand) with a Tufted Duck (toppand) and 4 Wigeon (brunnakke)

Waxwing (sidensvans) in the garden

the Maridalen Marsh Tit (løvmeis)

just look how much the appearance of a pale wing panel changes depending on angle

and a Willow Tit (granmeis) where the pale wing panel is always obvious