The end of September is when I should be on a far flung island finding birds with stripes or touches of red and blue. Unfortunately 2025 is yet another year where that hasn’t happened but I haven’t given up on an October trip to Værøy. It doesn’t seem that I have missed that much though as September hasn't been that productive with hardly a Yellow-browed Warbler reported although Olive-backed Pipits have been more numerous than usual. A few good birds have of course been found along the coast but not enough to make me jealous, yet…
Local birding is, no surprise, rather boring. I have had three owling trips so far which have yet to pull in a Tengmalm’s (although it is still early days) but I have heard Tawnies and a Long-eared came to inspect us one evening.
My only sense of rarity hunting came with an acro at Fornebu which turned out to be only a late Reed Warbler but it did get me in island mode for a few seconds.
And some photos from a visit to Østensjøvannet in the week.
a Moorhen (sivhøne)
and up a tree
Mute Swan (knoppsvane) family. Just a single pair bred succesfully this year due to lack of food and they have done well to raise 6 young although they cannot fly yet. Bread does seem to be an important part of their diet
a Shoveler (skjeand). There are up to 4 birds present but they are masters at hiding away
Despite hearing singing Tawny Owl’s (kattugle) on pretty much every nocturnal spring trip in Maridalen I had not managed to find any occupied nest boxes (I have never come across a natural nest hole in Maridalen). I still expected that nocturnal trips in June would reveal the presence of begging young but it is nice when one has a nest to follow. Just in the nick of time I did find a nest and it was purely by chance. One day I heard the sound of a begging young from a place where Tawny Owls were the absolute last thing on my mind. I knew there was a Goldeneye nest box in the tree next to me and looking at I could see a crack in the side and through the crack I could see the white fluffy feathers of baby owls!! They were clearly close to leaving the box and soon one, then two and finally three appeared at the opening 😊
I was able to follow them as over the next few days they one by one left the box and then perched in bushes and trees nearby. At night they made a heck of noise to let their parents know they were hungry but also called during the day. Very surprisingly I never saw an adult during the day even once the young were out of the box when the adults are normally close by and give warning calls when a threat (me) gets too close. I also didn’t see or hear an adult when I spent close to half an hour by the young one night. I had hoped to witness a food delivery in the thermal imager.
The nest box was on the edge of water and I had worried that a young could end up in the water on one of its maiden and uncontrolled flights but I didn’t expect to witness it. On a visit the day the last young left the box what I believe was the youngest reacted to our presence by flying out of its chosen tree (this has never happened with such small young before). It flew, although flapped is a better description, over the water and splash landed about 3m out. We were ready to wade out to save it but it had everything under control and using its wings as paddles made it back to land quickly. It then walked under some bushes and a few hours later was 2 metres up in the same bush begging for food so no harm seems to have been done.
The position of the nest in an isolated line of small trees was probably the reason I never saw the adult as they would have been in larger trees further away but presumably with a view of the area where the nest box was. I had hoped that this would also mean that the young would stay close to the box for quite a long time allowing me to easily find them and observe their development aswell as my hope of witnessing the adults bringing food. However they quickly moved away. Within a couple of nights they had moved close to 50m to the north and come to the end of the line of trees. Another couple of nights later though they had moved the other direction and were 100m from the box having crossed at least 60m of open land (or perhaps water depending on the route they took). It surprised me how quickly and far they moved and makes me wonder why they move and how they keep together. Do the adults encourage them or is it instinct?
They then moved a further 100m to an area of larger trees and perched higher up than before. There were now only 2 young that I could find and when they call at night it is easy to find them. I still failed to witness a food delivery or see an adult but may have heard one, the noises of which are audible in the final video. The young settled down in this area and were easy to find in the daytime.
By 11 days after they had all left the nest box they had moved another 300m which involved another long stretch over open land or water. It was in this new area which was more open woodland that I finally got to see an adult fly in with food and to also hear the young receiving the food. We could also see the young practising their flying skills.
Subsequent visits revealed no owls suggesting they had moved at least another 300 metres into a more extensive area of woodland.
the day I found them after hearing them calling and not quite believing my ears
out of the nest on a wet day
the oldest of the young on a wet day and most of the white downy feathers have been lost
after the unfortunate and unintended swim
in the thermal
me and a baby Tawny
having moved to larger trees 5 days after all the young had left the nest box
it was beyond cute to find them huddled up like this
this was in the evening of the 11th day after all the young had left the nest box
12 days after all the young had left the nestbox
13 days after leaving nest box
three videos from the evening of day 13 the first being the adult arriving with food:
when you are out at night you meet other creatures too
Owl Road has had less and less to offer this spring and a
trip on Thursday night with none other than my owl buddy supreme Per Christian
resulted in just two Tengmalm’s but the night ended up being a matter of
quality over quantity with my finally getting to properly film a singing male.
And because it was “only” -7C my fingers didn’t suffer too much either.
The night offered absolutely perfect conditions for owling
even if it was obviously not ideal for the owls themselves. There were no
clouds, not a breath of wind and a full moon. We would have heard an owl fart
at 10 kilometres range if they were there…
I am at a loss to explain why each trip (and this was my
sixth this spring) has had fewer birds and why the GGs have seemingly
disappeared. Either rodent numbers have declined after the snow melted such
that there is no longer enough food to support a breeding attempt or
alternatively there has been so much food that eggs have been layed and singing
is no longer a priority. Another explanation is that temperatures have
increased for each trip making the owlers time more comfortable and maybe the
Bird Gods only reward you if you really suffer for it.
I do feel that the Bird Gods favoured me though because the
encounter with bird on Thursday was more than I could ever hoped for, although
if I could make one complaint it would be that the owl was perched a bit too
high up and it could have made more an effort to look at me when it sang 😉
Owl Road
filming the Tengmalm's
I have also tried to get better film of the Long-eared Owl
but three subsequent trips have resulted in worse views and in the end no views
(or hoots) although I did manage some footage with the thermal imager.
Trips to Maridalen have not revealed any LEOs but Tawny Owls
have been in fine voice and I heard and recorded an interaction between a pair
that matches recordings of mating on The Sound Approach. They made a lot of
different noises including “chittering” which I understand to be from the
female at the time of mating.
Last night I took Jack to hopefully see the Great Grey Owl.
Jr did an excellent job driving us again and this was a big night for Jack. It
was his, perhaps final, chance to prove that he is not a jinx. It has to be
said that having him in along is normally just for his delightful company as
bird wise we normally see Jack.. 😉
Conditions were good although as has proved to be the case rather
too often recently temperatures were 4 degrees colder than forecast so our extremities
had to deal with -13C. It was cloudless and pretty much windless but the moon
was not up. We did not go chasing Tengmalm’s but did hear three or four and saw one but
it was the GG that was the absolute main target. The bird we heard last year
was Jack’s one and only encounter with the species and that was a long range
hear so too see one would be something else. Jr was also unusually invested in
getting to see one.
Our first attempt drew a
blank but at another place we heard a bird albeit
distantly. We then tried to get closer which proved unsuccesfull and we could not locate exactly where the bird was but eventually
approached our first stop again and heard that individual was now in full throttle.
It was actually quite easy to find him as he sat quite high up in a spruce and
looked down at us as he threw out his deep hoots. I am quite famous within an admittedly
extremely small circle for my Great Grey impression and I tried it out on this
bird. I immediately got his attention but after a quick look he then decided to
fly to another tree 10m away. The way he looked over his shoulder at me when he
landed was difficult to interpret – it was either come chase me handsome or you
scare me big boy. Either way I think we can say I have clearly got a future as
a GG impersonator.
The night was already made and it was only 8pm so we decided
to have a few other stops and this is when things got interesting. We heard a
hooting that matched the frequency and depth of a GG but the sound was very
gruff. We were unable to get close to it and get a recording but my conclusion
is that it was a GG with a speech impediment. However, in the same area we then
heard three different sounds. One was a barking that may very well have been a
female Ural Owl, the other a high pitched owly noise that resembled a Little
Owl (doesn’t occur in Norway) and then a single hoot that I have no idea about.
Our attempts to get the source(s) to come closer and call more frequently
failed and in the end extreme extremity pain caused us to seek refuge in a now
cold car and just start driving home to warm up. This though gives even more
reason to visit the area more this spring.
I made no attempt to take “proper” photos or videos but did
capture the hooting GG on my phone and also took some images with the thermal
imager. Despite it being -13C it was only the eyes, bill and legs that lit up
showing just how good the thick feathering is to insulate.
it was -13C but the body gives off no more heat than the trees
heat only comes from eyes, mouth, ears and legs
We also heard a Tawny Owl and I saw Hawkie in Maridalen
earlier in the day so it was a case of Owl, Owl, Owl & Owl!
the Hawk Owl had at times clearly heard something but I am still to see him even attempt to catch something in 2025 but his continued presence obviously means he does
Waxwings have been very scarce this winter but I did finally
get to see a small flock very well in Maridalen on Wednesday as they fed on the
red berries of I believe the black listed garden plant red elderberry (rødhyll)
that has spread everywhere.
Waxwing (sidensvans)
the red waxy tips to the secondaries are clear to see
In Maridalen lots of Common Crossbills are still coming down
to the roads and I have managed better footage showing that it must be
salts/minerals they are licking rather than grit they are eating although I am
sure they do both. It was unsurprising that I found a roadkill male which allowed
a closer look at its impressive bill. I was tempted to dissect it to look at
the contents of its stomach but thought that was a step too far for citizen
science.
salt licking male Common Crossbill (grankorsnebb)
and female
and some photos of the dead bird. I had wanted to open the bill to look at the tongue but I was just unable and did not fancy having to snap it open
