Rest, they say, is only for the wicked (as has been pointed out to me I have got that expression completely and rather embarrassingly wrong! It is of course NO rest for the wicked…😂) and this bank holiday
has seen me guiding for southern Norway’s best birds which at the moment
primarily means owls. I have spent three long, tiring, but very fun, and
rewarding days with Graham and Marcus Workman where were have seen Great Grey,
Ural and Tegnmalm’s Owls, Black Woodpecker, Wryneck, Honey Buzzard, Common Rosefinch, Icterine
and Wood Warblers, Slavonian Grebe, Moose, Capercaille and so much more.
The Great Grey and Ural were rated as their best birding
experiences ever and I couldn’t possibly disagree with that.
All the birds that I have been monitoring and checking in on
this spring were present and correct and showed impeccably well with my only
complaint to the Bird Gods being that the two singing Common Rosefinch that we
found were boring brown 2cy males instead of the bright red older males that
give them their name. It was only me complaining though☺️
I don’t have the time to write any more as I need to allow
myself a rest as I am guiding again tomorrow and most of next week. I’ll just
let the photos and video do the talking - it truly has been a great weekend!
This explains the Golden Bread reference. When Norwegian birders celebrate a lifer it is a tradition to celebrate with a Gullbrød (gold bread). This chocolate covered bar of marsipan is not to my personal liking but Graham and Marcus were keen to join the tradition. Here they are celebrating GGO which was lifer #1 but there were at least 3 more after that
my footage from the weekend pales into comparison with what these two got. Graham had a top of the range Nikon set up but Marcus was just using an iphone 11 (the same as me) with an adapter on a Kowa scope and was taking fantastic videos and stills. I hope to link to their work later once they are home and have published it. And I think I will be getting an adapter - will sure be cheaper than buying a new camera and lens that I rather desperately need and to be honest may give better results
Great Grey Owl (lappugle) - this is the "hissig" female and as usual she greeted us by bill snapping and this time growling long before we could see her. Again she was perched in a tree when we arrived but then flew onto the nesting platform so presumably has eggs but once again I can only say that her behaviour is not normal
Ural Owl (slagugle) presumed female. We glimpsed the furry tops of the heads of probably two young in the hole of the nest box and the male was also in the area
it was a joy to see this young Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) who was looking out at dusk of his own accord (i.e no need for my poor trunk scratching to be put to the test). I reckon it was going to leave the box that same night
This sequence from the Black Woodpecker nests shows first from the nest with the three young where both parents came into feed at the same time but only after we had waited for close to an hour and a half... Our presence clearly affected the behaviour of the parents though and we had to move further back before they came in and fed the young. The sequence in the video where it almost looks like they are engaged in ritual courtship is how they were acting when they did not dare to go the nest (i.e before we moved away). Right at the end is the female in the other nest where excavation seems to be over and hopefully egg laying has begun. As they are a good month later than normal it will be interesting to see if they succesfully fledge young.
male Black Woodpecker (svartspett) and young
Slavonian Grebes (horndykker):
I also had a chance to check the second Ural Owl nest box and here the female was sat high so I reckon has newly hatched young but is around two weeks behind the other pair
Yesterday, saw me on a friends and family guiding to the owls
in Hedmark. It was very successful if, as always, tiring trip.
Two nesting Great Grey Owls included my back up nest which I
visited for the first time and the pair that I have now previously visited
which have acted in a very aggressive way without being on the nest. On
yesterday’s visit the female again announced her presence by bill snapping when
we were 50m away and could not see either her or the nest. She was perched
quite high in a tree and continued snapping noisily whilst we watched her. It
is quite uncomfortable being there when the bird seems so unhappy/angry so we
didn’t hang around but I kept looking over my shoulder as we left just in case
she flew at us but instead she flew onto the nesting platform and acted very
much as though she was on eggs! But this raises a number of questions:
1.Why was she not on the nest initially? My experiences
with other nesting GGO over the years has always been that the females stay on
the nest no matter what.
2.Why does she continue to be so aggressive in her
behaviour? At the other nest we visited the female made no noise and hardly
seemed to follow our movements
3.Why is she so late in egg laying? The eggs (if
there actually are some) must surely have been laid since my visit with Jack on
5th May whereas I know that at the other nest the first egg was laid
on 22nd April which I think is in itself a fairly late date.
the particularly aggressive female GGO in a tree
and then suddenly on the nest platform
and the other GGO nest which is much more luxuriously furnished
A check of the Tengmalm’s nest box resulted in no joy for my
trunk scratching but I was able to attach the superzoom to the tripod and lift
it up such that I could see through the hole and there were at least two large
young in the box. A very thorough search of the area did not reveal any adults
or other young that may already have jumped out although mum must have
been very close by.
We checked just one of the Ural Owls nests. This was the
nest where the female flew out when I scratched on 8th April so with
an incubation period of about 4 weeks I was ready for the young to already be
large enough that mum was no longer in the box. This meant we need to be very
careful as to how we approached the area and we walked a large semi circle
around the nest box. The female gave away her presence by bill snapping and
when we finally saw her perched about 30m from the box she flew away from the
box as though trying to draw us away. Just a couple of steps by us towards the
box though brought her right back and then she kept a very close eye on us (although
we did not go any closer to the box for both our own safety and also her
comfort). One thing that was odd was that she seemed to be panting almost all
the time. It was only about +13C so was hardly hot and she wasn’t in direct
sunlight but she was pumping her throat with her bill open (but not making any
audible noises) for minutes on end. The young did not show themselves in the
nest opening so are hopefully not ready to leave for 1-2 weeks.
Ural Owl (slagugle)
A stop to listen for Ortolan resulted in no joy and although
it may still be a bit too early it would hardly be a surprise if none returned
this year. The last confirmed nesting was my record in 2023 and the last two
years have only seen a couple of unpaired singing males, one of which is very
likely to have been the male from the 2023 nesting. So, it would be no surprise
if these birds are now dead and with no recruitment to this population extinction
has been unavoidable.
Oslo birding since my last post has continued to be quite
uneventful with rain and southerly winds having no noticeable effect. The only
highlight was a thirty minute mid afternoon period in Maridalen on the 16th
just after it had stopped raining and when the sun came out. This caused a
Falsterbo lite experience with 3 Honey Buzzards, 4 Ospreys, 1 Common Buzzard, 1
Sparrowhawk and 4 Kestrels moving through. Wrynecks seem to be well established
though with no a mating paid and two unpaired males and after struggling with
Black Woodpecker I now have a nest that is still being excavated and another where
two young were being fed at the entrance. At the nest which is still being excavated
I saw no splinters being thrown out but could hear one of the adults (I’m quite
sure the female) knocking away inside the hole and also on two occasions
drumming inside the hole!
this Black Woodpecker nest must be at least 4 weeks ahead of the other one I found
And an interesting encounter with a Beaver that just swam straight down the white water rapids
Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my exceptional
ability to fail to take exceptionally good videos. I am not talking
about my videos being shaky and out of focus as that at least means I took the
video, no I’m talking about all the videos I fail to take because of
my continued inability to press the record button.
Yesterday evening saw yet another monumental f**k up and
quite possibly the all-time best video that I never took when
I had a Great Grey Owl at about 15m range with a large vole in its bill. The
vole was still alive and its feet twitching when the owl delivered the killer
bite to the head, ate the head and then swallowed the body all whilst looking
at me. The light was good, it was in sharp focus and I was holding the
superzoom steady but had I pressed record? I thought I had, I even thought I
had checked the red circle was showing in the top right corner of the view
finder. But no, of course, I hadn’t and I am still kicking myself.
We are talking about a video (that wasn’t) so incredibly
good that David Attenborough would have paid me for the honour of narrating it.
This video which was taken immediately after has me
expressing my utter contempt for myself whilst the owl looks on….
Great Grey Owl (lappugle) just after it swallowed a big vole but you'll just have to take my word for that as I FAILED to film it
This happening arose as Jack accompanied me on a trip to
deepest Hedmark to try to get to the bottom of the GGO situation anno 2026. We
checked 4 platforms and 2 old Buzzard nests without finding any incubating GGs.
At the platform that I have visited twice before in April the pair were present
and the female was very aggressive with bill clicking beginning when we were
50m away and had yet to see her. She also adopted a threat posture and looked
like she might fly at us at any moment. Her bill clicking also brought the male
in who sat a bit less open but also clicked at us. This aggression from GGO
when they do not have young to protect is most unusual (perhaps unprecedented) as
is the fact that the pair clearly remains in breeding modus but have not yet
laid eggs and it is surely too late now.
the female in threat posture
the male
the males
the pair with the female on the left
The hunting bird we saw was an encouraging sign but the fact
it ate the vole rather than flying off with it to feed a mate leaves me not
knowing whether or not it was a breeding bird. I do know of an occupied nest
but have yet to visit that site as it has been important that I find my own
birds but I may have to give up on that hope for this year.
We ruined our finger nails scratching on trunks under every
woodpecker hole we saw with only a Great Spotted pecker ever flying out but at
a nestbox we did finally find breeding Tengmalm’s although it was Jack who
scratched so I still do not know if I have a technique that works.
Other birds seen were a couple of Capers but again females,
Black Grouse, Wryneck and Woodcock but it was a cold day with temperatures
falling below zero as soon as it got dark and that probably caused less
activity than we could have hoped for.
we had two roadside sightings of Moose
Back in Oslo this morning I was faced with the realisation
that springs undoubted highlight - the wader migration at Svellet - is pretty
much over. Water levels rose another 20cm yesterday to 4.03m and whilst there is still
mud and shallow water there are clearly few remaining areas where there is food
in the mud and wader numbers were nearly halved from yesterday and many were
just roosting rather than feeding. It is a travesty that such an
internationally important staging post for shorebirds cannot be managed better
but that pretty much sums up «conservation» in the world’s richest and «best»
country.
Svellet 6th May. There is still (dry) mud but water levels have risen a lot
In Maridalen it looks like the 3rd Lapwing nest has now hatched with there being four young near it and no bird still incubating and yesterday’s brood of three is actually four but I never saw these two broods simultaneously so there remains a very small chance that one single brood of four 1-2 day old young was able to cross a ditch.
a brood of day old Lapwing (vipe)
rarity of the day was this all black corvid on the Lapwing field. I concluded with it being a 2cy Rook (kornkråke) rather than a Carrion Crow (svartkråke) but it ain't always straightforward especially at distance in heat haze. Interestingly the Lapwings which always tried to chase away any intruding Hooded Crows left this bird alone
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.
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.
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
