Checking in on the owls

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 5^th May whereas I know that at the other nest the first egg was laid on 22^nd 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 8^th 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 16^th 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

Kiting

The weekend ended up being very memorable. Birding outings to Maridalen and Nordre Øyeren were not particularly productive other than twitching a Green-winged Teal but a strategically planned long drive to Sweden for Jr to practice her driving ahead of her test and also to do some cheap shopping allowed me to stop at Gjølsjøen and hopefully put to bed my search for Red Kite in 2025. Me going to a place to see them is of course not the same as finding one unexpectedly close to Oslo but as we saw 4 which is the second highest count in Norway (the highest being 5 on 9 April 2023) I think we can say it was an outstanding day. After I had spotted one bird and we preparing to leave Jr then asked “what is that big bird?” and pointed at something through the windscreen. It was so distant that she had to help me find it but it turned out to be Red Kite #2. We then raced off to try to get closer which worked like a charm then it was joined by #3 and #4!! There have been many published records of up to 2 birds in the area this spring but the species would seem to be very well established and being so close to the Swedish border it is perhaps no surprise. It is a great area with breeding Marsh Harriers and I also had a female Hen Harrier and a very distant ringtail that seemed more like a Pallid.

Red Kite (rødglente) #2 which was the bird that showed best

#2

#2

#2

and #3

and #1. #4 was more distant did not get photoed as I was too interested in #2 and #3 that were closer

ringtail Hen Harrier (myrhauk)

Green-winged Teal (amerikakrikkand) at Merkja. This is where I last saw the species and it is very likely the same, returning, bird

the vertical bar of the Green-winged and the horisontal bar of the European Teal

a quick stop at the Black Redstart (svartrødstjert) was very successful and he was actively singing

in Maridalen a pair of Three-toed Woodpeckers seemed to be searching for a suitable tree to excavate a hole in and were moving from tree to tree tapping very loudly. Here the female has sent some splinters of bark flying

the male

there are quite a few Wrynecks (vendehals) in Maridalen now. The original male now has a mate and I saw them checking out old GS Woodpecker holes to choose where they will nest and there are also two currently unpaired singing birds

being out at dawn allows one to see Beavers too

Snipes

I have been drawn back again and again to the Jack Snipe at Fornebu and by using the thermal imager they have been easy to find and there are not just two but three birds and also a Common Snipe which is a far rarer mid-winter bird in these parts than its tiny cousin. Interestingly the Jack Snipe are always on floating reeds rather than muddy edges but they may well use other more open areas at night.

I managed to find the King Eider again at 2+km range and Hawkie remains in the Dale. A Greylag Goose at Fornebu was an early spring migrant and the first bird that I can apply that label to so far in 2025.

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) in the open. It must have been feeding here and froze when it saw me

can you see two birds?

close up of detail with flash on

and a Common Snipe (enkeltbekkasin)

only my second sighting of Waxwings (sidensvans) in 2025. 

Hawkie in the Dale

the King Eider (praktærfugl) is a bugger to document at >2km range but is at least identifiable in the video

Shag (toppskarv) and Cormorant (storskarv)

A surprise sighting of a daytime, mid winter Beaver in Maridalen. This stream had been frozen until just a few days ago and the Beaver was presumably using the opportunity to get some fresh food.

A week of nothing

When it is mid May and I go a whole week without posting then I think you already understand that I am going to say it has been dire.

The hot, sunny weather continues and there just seem to be few birds. We have just a looong weekend with Friday being Norway’s national day and yesterday was a holiday in celebration of Pentecost (don’t ask me what that is…). We spent 3 days at the cabin at Hulvik which I had expected to provide loads of good birds but it didn’t for once. A nocturnal trip produced zero Nightjars or other interesting nocturnal birds (although it was a tad early in the spring there should have been more) and a sea gaze from before 5am in what were not bad conditions produced a single Red-throated Diver migrating north and that was it!!!!

I have added to my Oslo list with Reed Warbler #171, Redstart #172 and Common Rosefinch #173.

Rain that is forecast on Thursday night and Friday morning will if the bird gods are feeling generous produce floods of marsh terns, Little Gulls and hirundines….

3cy+ male Common Rosefinch (rosenfink)

finally Redstart (rødstjert)

male Red-backed Shrike (tornskate) in Maridalen

he had attracted a female and was dancing for her

male Whitethroat (tornsanger)

Hobby (lerkefalk) today

a Sparrowhawk (spurvehauk) trying to chase the Hobby away

an unexpected meeting with a Beaver in the middle of the day today

and even more unexpected was getting close to a fox that was feeding on a long dead Moose carcass in a river