Big Owls

So, tell us about those big owls, I hear you say.

 

Owls are an attractive species for guiding and generally the larger they get the more sought after they are. The occurrence of most species of owl in Scandinavia, and especially the exciting ones, though is correlated with the abundance of rodents which goes in cycles. In the bottom year(s) of the rodent cycle there may be no breeding of owls over huge areas and I have heard of people going on organised trips to Finland especially to see owls and not seeing a single one. In the top years though there can be many owls of a number species and a visit in one of these years will have you scratching your head when other people tell you they were in the same area the previous, or next, year and saw nothing or had to work really hard for their one sighting.

After my success with Great Grey Owl last spring I already have people booked to come over for Great Grey Owl this May but have tried to make it clear that there is no guarantee there will be any breeding this year and therefore without a nest to visit it will be very difficult to find any. I have therefore been very anxious as to how it would be this year. My visits to Owl Rd earlier in the spring revealed only a couple of Tengmalm’s and no GG which was in stark contrast to last year however I have heard that it is better further north in Hedmark, or at least in some areas there, and it therefore seems that rodent numbers are varying locally.

I decided to keep on driving north to Hedmark on Wednesday after having dropped Jr off at the airport and had an afternoon and evening to see what I could find. It was still very early in the season (2 weeks prior to my visit last year when I found two occupied GGO nests) and I did not find any GGO on nests however I have it on good authority that less than a week before a number of birds could be heard at night including by the natural nest I found last year so the birds are clearly there and have just hopefully not laid eggs yet – a visit in two weeks time will confirm the situation. I did have GG at one site though and the bird which must have been a female came to greet me by perching above me and snapping her bill. So, this bird which while not yet incubating eggs on the nearby nest platform was acting in an aggressive way which clearly suggests that she is at least getting ready to nest. What is important now is that rodent numbers remain high enough for the owls to believe they can raise at least some young to fledging. If rodent numbers are on their way down then the owls may give up on their nesting attempts even if they have been singing and mating.

I was happy that I did have one GG under my belt though and the went looking for Ural Owl. I visited the area where I last had breeding birds and a scratch of a tree trunk below a nest box resulted in a female flying out! I really did not expect this to happen for two reasons: firstly Ural Owl females are famous for sitting tight and often not leaving the nest even when the nest box is opened up and two I had really begun to believe there must be something wrong with my trunk scratching technique as it failed completely to work last year with Tengmalm’s even when I knew a hole to be in use.

The owl proceeded to land in a nearby tree where it growled at me and called gruffly. I am not sure what the calling was for – maybe to call in the male (who I did not see) or perhaps meant to scare me off. Whatever the reason, I did not stay long and hopefully she quickly returned to the nest. In 4 to 5 weeks if the eggs have hatched then she will perch close to the nest whilst the young may be visible in the nest hole.

So, very exciting times are ahead but only if rodent numbers don’t crash.

 

Here a few pictures and videos where you can see the anti predator responses of the female of both species.

Greay Grey Owl (lappugle)

can you spot the Ural Owl (slagugle)?

My trip to Hedmark wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to Starene where there were still good flood waters and lots of geese including Tundra Bean and White-fronted. I do love this site! And I also had Wood Lark at one of their usual locations.

Starene

 

Woodlark (trelerke)

Some excitement came on the drive home when I saw smoke and blue lights ahead of me and came across a burning car and fire trucks. A check of the map showed that I had not alternative route and just had to sit it out. It was exciting watching the firemen at work and thankfully I was able to find out that nobody had been injured. The car had just started burning whilst I was being driven and the driver stopped and called the fire brigade. Because it was in the middle of nowhere it took a long time before the fire trucks arrived by which time the car was completely ablaze. To illustrate how isolated we were, I was the first car to arrive from my direction which must have been at least 20 minutes after the fire brigade were called and in the 45 minutes I was stuck there only two other cars arrived behind me.

Early trip to the mountains

the view from Venabu towards Rondane. There should be lots more snow at this time of the year

At the weekend I joined Per Christian for a trip to his cabin in the mountains of Ringebu, 3 hours drive north of Oslo. This was a repeat of a very enjoyable trip in 2022.

 

On the way up we stopped at Starene which is such a great place and I so wish it was closer to Oslo. There were close to 1000 Pink-footed Geese and amongst them we picked out 3 Tundra Beans. The real highlight though was when a young White-tailed Eagle flew in. It flew slowly over the geese, before almost hovering at about 30m altitude and then diving into the panicking geese. Amazingly it took one in flight and then landed with it just out of sight for us (due to a ridge in the field). For some reason it soon flew up minus the goose so presumably the goose somehow escaped the eagle talons once they were on the deck.

Ebird checklist here.

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) with a Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås)

the flooded fields at Starene with Pink-footed Geese above them

 

After this we visited the Taiga Beans at their second Norwegian staging post. This site is rarely visited but is in fact just as traditional as the one closer to Oslo and they also use a far more limited area here with just the same couple of fields used each year. They were mixed in with some Pink-feet and difficult to see but there were ca.80 birds so presumably the whole flock was there and I saw the two with neck collars.

 

After this we went owling. A stop at a Ural Owl nestbox revealed no birds but the thermal imager strongly suggested there was a bird inside. After this we then intended to see lots of Great Grey Owls as we drove forest tracks at dusk. That wasn’t to be the case though and we had precious few other birds which was also to be the case at the cabin. The cabin is at about 950 metres and as expected there was still snow but not very much and there were many bare patches in the mountains. But neither in the mountains or down in the valley could we find many birds over the weekend. No grouse of any kind, and just a few Mistle Thrushes and Chaffinches of migrants. A single Siberian Jay on the feeders at the cabin was of course much appreciated but it was a brief visit and a Golden Eagle was very distant. We also went owling in the area and had definite plans to hear Eagle Owl. The owl was not aware of our plans though but a Tengmalm’s did show well and we had a daytime  Hawk Owl.

On the way back a stop at the Lågendelta in Lillehammer gave a few early migrant waterbirds with 4 Rock Pipits being the highlight.

Ebird checklist here.

the White-tailed Eagle hovering above the geese

and the stooping

it then singled out a bird

this is about a minute later when it flew up prey less

a closer up of the geese as they flew around following the eagle putting them all up

after the geese eventually settled there were quite a few Barnacles (hvitkinngjess) and three Tundra Beans (tundrasædgås) amongst the Pink-feet

same bird

and a second bird with its orange feet allowing it to be easily picked out from the Pink-feet

Taiga Bean Geese in the damp corner of a stubble field where there was rough grassland - a typical habitat

this bird was very distinctive and had me thinking 2cy Greenland White-front for a bit due to all orange bill, slight white around the bill and dark plumage

here it is again. It was a very large bird though so must have been a Taiga Bean but I cannot remember having seen it before

3 Taiga Beans and a Pink-foot

a mixture

Siberian Jay (lavskrike)

Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle)

Hawk Owl

northern lights over Lillehamer

and a much weaker display over the mountains

Easter

I’ve just returned from 5 days skiing in Trysil with the family. There were remarkably few birds to be seen or heard in the forests through which the pistes ran but I did hear a single Pine Grosbeak. The view from the top of the mountain was fantastic and revealed the true extent of the forests in the area which support Rustic Buntings, Great Grey and Ural Owls, wolves and bears and it is not hard to believe that the populations of the birds are much higher than ornithologists know of given the vastness and inaccessibility of the area.

On the drive up I had a roadside Hawk Owl and on the drive back a roadside Pygmy Owl but no raptors.

On our last night there was a fall of around 30cm of snow which must have proven a challenge for the earliest migrants. A stop at a petrol station revealed two Robins searching for food around the cars which was a real sign of how desperate they were.

On the drive home I persuaded the girls that a stop at Starene would be worthwhile and whilst they played on ipads I viewed this great area. There were hundreds of Pink-footed Geese and amongst them 6 geese with orange legs. Two were White-fronted Geese, 3 were Tundra/rossicus Bean Geese and the last a Taiga/fabalis Bean Goose.  I didn’t have my scope with me and only the superzoom but at one stage had a Taiga and Tundra in the same field of view. The Tundra’s were pretty straightforward to ID but as is usual with a lone bird the Taiga took a bit of time before I felt happy but its large size, long thin neck, relatively small head and long thin bill eventually made me happy with the(sub)specific ID.

There were lots of Teal feeding amongst flooded areas of long grass but they never showed well and I didn’t see the Green-winged Teal that had been seen amongst them a few days previously.

My first Hen Harrier of the year also showed briefly from the car.

Hawk Owl at 80km/h (I was in the passenger seat...)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) at 50km/h (also from the passenger seat)

Petrol station Robins (rødstrupe) 

Pink-footed (kortnebgås) and a Barnacle Goose (hvitkinngås) at Starene 

Pink-foot EC3. Ringed 30.4.16 in Trøndelag in the middle of Norway. Spent the winter in Denmark and seen at Starene since 03.04

BA8. Ringed 30.4.16 in Trøndelag. Also spent the winter in DK and seen at Starene since 03.04

Pink-footed Geese 

The Taiga/fabalis Bean Goose (sædgås) 

Tundra/ rossicus Bean Goose #1

#2

#3

a very poor photo. But top right is the Taiga and in the middle is Tundra #3 

Two sleeping White-fronted Geese

This morning I was up early and in Maridalen before breakfast. In the course of six days the ice on the lake has frozen and the farmer has started ploughing the stubble fields. Clear skies and an overnight frost meant there were not too many birds though. Eight Curlew were the (expected) highlight. Passage of this species is very concentrated to the middle of April and it is always a thrill to see and hear this species. Five Green Sands were also a welcome sight and with Snipe and Lapwing I had four species of wader.

Five Black-throated Divers were on the lake and two flew north. There were few thrushes or finches and only a single Mipit but Robins and Dunnocks were very noticeable. I heard a singing Black Grouse and amazingly found it sitting on the top of a spruce on a hillside over 2km away!

singing Black Grouse (orrfugl) at at least 2km range

5 Black-throated Divers (storlom) were on the lake and two headed north 

These two Curlew (storspove) were resting on frost covered fields first thing

and then flew up to join six that came in from the south. After making a few circuits they landed on an island in the lake

Jay (nøtteskrike) 

male Tufted Duck (toppand) with forsty vegetation

Twite (bergirisk) one of a flock of six