Hooters!

It is time for some owl eye candy me thinks.

Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle)

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.

Bewick's Swan and Stonechat - early spring highlights

It is getting cold again and we have had snow so migration has pretty much stopped up although there are of course always some new birds turning up.

In early spring there are a handful of scarce species I always hope to find such as Red Kite, Bewick’s Swan and Stonechat. I always have them in mind and scan the skies, fence posts and Whooper Swan flocks with the hope of striking gold (or perhaps silver is more accurate). I have not found any of them so far this spring but have gone to see both Bewick’s and Stonechat at places where I have already this spring trying in vain to find just these birds.

The Bewick’s was found on the same fields as “my” Taiga Beans are amongst a now very large Whooper Swan herd. I went the next day and the undulating field, sheer number of birds (>500 Whoopers) plus the fact that birds had their heads down feeding made finding the smaller Bewick’s very hard work. I did eventually succeed and to my surprise found two birds in the flock although they were not together. The next day the Whooper herd had grown even more and it took me over an hour to locate a Bewick’s but judging by the bill pattern this looks to be a third individual….! A trip today (two days later) revealed again two birds, not together, and not including the third individual whose bill pattern is quite distinctive. The sheer difficulty in finding these Bewick’s when you know they are there has highlighted to me how perfunctory many of my previous attempts to find the species have been where I have just swept over a large flock of Whoopers a couple of times and left happy there were no Bewick’s amongst them. Note to self -must work harder in the future.

The Taiga Beans have now increased to 87 birds and I have found four ringed individuals. I do not expect any more birds to arrive and this total is the lowest ever recorded but is in line with the downward trend that has been apparent the last decade. Whether the breeding sub population is in decline or more birds are choosing to migrate via Sweden is unknown (to me).

I saw the Stonechat today, a nice male, and although not at my beloved Maridalen, or even Fornebu it was at Nordre Øyeren and represents a new species for me there (and only the third ever record at the site of which the second was a week ago..).

Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane) 1 on Tuesday

same bird

Bewick's 2 also on Tuesday

same bird

the single bird I saw on Wednesday amongst around 650 Whoopers. The pattern of black on the ridge of the bill where it meets the white feathers looks to be different to the birds the previous day

same bird

Bewick's 1 today (Friday)

Bewick's 2 today

my first Cranes (trane) of the year

a displaying male Goshawk (hønsehauk) in Maridalen

a snowy Maridalen with the first Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) of the year

Taiga Beans

ringed bird 7V

and 7Y

a meeting with a Three-toed Woodpecker in Maridalen

some of the many Whooper Swans (sangsvane)

Stonechat (svartstrupe)

In Maridalen Crossbill chicks have already hatched and seem to be thriving despite the cold. The parents only come ever 45 minutes or so and regurgitate spruce seeds into the mouths of their young.

Waterfowl arriving

Maridalsvannet is still 99.9% frozen but the areas of open water where the rivers enter at Hammeren and Dausjøelva are now large enough to attract wildfowl. Numbers of Canada and Greylag Geese have built up to around 15 of each with a single hybrid and the first Teal have also arrived and can be seen alongside Mallards and Goldeneye. Whooper Swans are passing through in addition to the local birds. There are two pairs that are being territorial and today it was clear that one pair is as usual winning. I assume that this is the pair that has bred for over a decade but I have not previously worked out any identifying features to be completely sure. Today it really kicked off between these two pairs and one bird, I believe the male, got a right beating up and ended up running into woodland with the rival male holding on to him. After these fights the winning pair always celebrates with lots of calling and wing flapping whilst the losing pair tries to move far enough away to avoid another drubbing. Today I saw though that the losing pair (identifiable due to marks resulting from their previous mauling) decided they needed to regain some pride and went on the offensive against the adults in a family of five that were feeding at Skjerven. Once the Whooper Swans eventually work things out we will probably have beef between them a Mute Swans who I expect will yet again try to breed on the lake.

The first Pink-footed Geese arrived on Monday. A flock of 85 flew north before turning due to fog and then landing on the water at Hammeren before moving to the ice and then flying onto the fields at Skjerven to feed alongside the other geese and swans so it was quite a sight!

And the first Chaffinches and Mistle Thrushes have also revealed themselves to me 😊

when I first observed the drama one bird from the losing pair had already been chased off and was standing on the ice calling whilst the other bird was being straddled and its neck held

the other bird in the victorious pair was really egging its mate on

even after the bird had managed to get on the ice the dominant bird would not let go of its neck

This video shows the two swans then moving up into the trees before the other bird from the winning pair then flies towards the other bird from the losing pair and chases it off before it is joined by its mate that has left the trees and then the losing bird from the trees also reappears on the ice

the triumphant pair having a celebratory dance

and then washing themselves which is a behaviour I have noted many times after they have emerged triumphant from a fight with other swans (Whooper or Mute)

this video is of the field at Skjerven where 85 Pink-footed Geese were feeding alongside Greylags and Canadas and a family party of 5 Whoopers. The defeated Whooper Swan pair then arrives calling and lands on the field

When the pair landed they made a lot noise and danced. The dark mark on the back of the neck shows this to be the bird that was being held earlier

they then started to get aggressive

and flew at the parents of the family who did not put any fight presumably because they are just passing through so have no territorial ambitions in Maridalen

the now victorious pair celebrates their "victory"

14 Whoopers including a family with 4 young flying over without stopping

some of the Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås)

male Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) who can be seen and heard drumming in the video

and hooting and calling Tawny Owls