Taiga guiding

This weekends guiding had me praying to the Bird Gods and wondering what I had done to displease them before eventually being giving their slightly limited blessing.

Martyn, Jo and Stella had come to Oslo to see our special winter birds and especially Hawk Owl and I was determined they would leave happy.

On Saturday the target was the specialities of Maridalen and surrounding forests and on Sunday it was the taiga areas of Hedmark. 

Saturday was sunny, windless and cold with temperatures down to -20C in the forest and on Sunday it was forecast to be same but ended up being cloudy with occasional snow and temperatures down to -23C. We experienced near white out conditions a couple of times when we were in low cloud and whilst cool to experience it was not the best conditions for finding birds.

On Saturday the targets were Hazel Grouse, Pygmy Owl and interesting woodpeckers. Haze Grouse took an hour and a half and just as we were about to head back to the car empty handed I had one last attempt and finally a bird sang. It then took another 15 minutes to find the bird but it then sat directly above us in a tree and was so unaffected by our presence that it never even looked down at us.

Otherwise, the forest was very quiet with no peckers of any type.

Maridalen gave us Crested and Willow Tits, Goshawk, Dipper and Hawfinch and eventually Pygmy Owl which showed very well but far too briefly.

So, the two main targets were delivered but peckers disappointed.

 

Sunday we had a two hour drive to the taiga and I kept hoping the forecast sun would appear the further north we drove but instead we just saw lower and lower cloud. The forests were covered in thick snow but where were the birds?!? We slowly drove the forest roads for over 4 hours and saw only 11 species and only around 40 individual birds of which Bullfinches made up half of these…. 

For a long time a female Capercaille was the top bird before a Three-toed ‘pecker gave itself up but far too briefly and partly made up for the lack of peckers the day before but we still failed to see a Black. But where the taiga species? Hawk Owl (which was the #1 priority for the whole weekend, Pine Grosbeak and Sibe Jay?

People were dozing off in the car but I was still searching for a lump on a tree top and FINALLY a Hawk Owl gave itself up. Only 30 metres from the road it showed just long enough for me to set up the scope so its yellow eyes could be studied before stooping down and never reappearing. That was the last bird we saw in the forest and a fitting end to the trip but I would have liked to be able to find Grosbeak and Sibe Jay. It wasn’t through lack of trying and f the sun had been shining then I think we would have had more birds perching on tree tops but we play with the cards we are dealt with.

 

Pictures were not my priority but here is a flavour of the weekend.

watching Hawkie

can you spot him?

a bit more recognisable here

the football in a tree is "my" Hazel Grouse

very close but he never lifted his head and looked at us!

female Capercaille (storfugl)

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

and a Three-toed 'pecker leaving stage right

Getting fed up of the freeze

Back in Oslo I am now getting tired of winter. We have had one of the longest cold spells in Oslo for many, many years and there is no indication of it stopping. Temperatures have not risen above zero since 20 Jan and since 1 Jan we have only had plus temperatures on 16 – 19 Jan. Although I always say that I like “proper” seasons it does get a bit boring when nothing changes. One possible upside from this long winter is that we will get a much more noticeable beginning to spring migration when the thaw finally comes. One thing for sure is that we will not be seeing an early arrival of the Taiga Beans this year.

On Tuesday I had my first owling trip of the year, a year and a day since the first trip of 2024 which produced 11 singing Tengmalm’s. Owling conditions were good with no wind and temperatures of -14C but there was no moon which may or may not (depending on who you speak to) be an important factor. The result of the evenings endeavour’s was just a single Tengmalm’s which sang constantly and could be heard at over 2km range but which was not close to the road. It is still early in the spring but this disappointing result is I believe due to a collapse in the rodent population but there is still time for things to change and there are always local variations.

In Maridalen I have seen Pygmy Owls in three different locations over the last three days and all sat high and were easy to see which is how it should be.

 

I am guiding this weekend and on Sunday we will drive up to the taiga areas in Hedmark with the hope of Hawkie, Piney and Sibe Jay. It is forecast to be sunny with little wind but very cold but these should be good conditions.

I have had a chance to go through my Tromsø pictures on the computer so present a few more here.

a close Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)

Moose are becoming easier to see in Maridalen but luck is still needed

the Østensjøvannet Water Rails (vannrikse) have not been that easy to see so far this winter but this one showed well

Common Eiders (ærfugl) in Tromsø

a Queen Eider (praktærfugl) with her Common cousinns

from the left: female Common Eider, 2 different looking Queens, a young male Common and an adult male Common

Jack and co. are still going strong

Tromsø in February rocks!

Our first mid winter trip to Tromsø has been a resounding success. We arrived at the end of Sami Week, an annual celebration of all things Sami, and got to see the Norwegian Championships in both lasso throwing and Reindeer racing. The reindeer racing happened on a snow lined downtown street on a 201m course. It was explained that 201m is the internationally defined distance for the sport but no explanation was given for why. A skier holds on to the reins whilst the animal runs and covers the distance in around 17 seconds. It all looked great fun although the animals didn’t exactly look thrilled whilst being harnessed up. Animal welfare was not mentioned once..

The Northern Lights also put on a show and this is one of the main reasons the City has become such a popular winter tourist destination and the streets were heaving with winter clothed tourists from ever corner of the globe. This tourism results in hotel prices going through the roof and rented accommodation being used for Air BnB rather than for locals or students who need it and is causing quite a lot of resentment among many natives.

I put on a «show» for the 100 or so students in Junior’s 8 storey high student block when whilst making food I slightly burnt some mince causing the smoke alarm to go off and the whole building to be evacuated. The fire brigade arrived within 10 minutes and were very good about it - I even think they were grateful to me for being given something to do on an otherwise boring Sunday evening ☺️

But what about the birds I hear you say. Well, they were tip top super. King Eiders and an adult Iceland Gull topped the bill and all seen whilst walking from Junior’s into town. Passerines are of course going to be in short supply in winter this far north but an abundance of rowan berries resulted in small flocks of Waxwing and and most surprisingly a Redwing which would be an exceptional mid winter sight even in Oslo.

The trusted superzoom and mobile phone resulted in the following documentation of the delights of Tromsø (this is done at the airport and I may come with some better edited photos later):

King Eider (praktærfugl) pair

Adult Iceland Gull (grønnlandsmåke)

Fieldfare (gråtrost)

Redwing (rødvingetrost)

I saw no divers in the field but this Yellow-billed was in Tromsø Museum

Where I also had my best ever «views» of a Gyr Falcon
(Jaktfalk)

According to accepted Norwegian birding wisdom Shags (toppskarv) never perch like this…

Purple Sandpiper (fjæreplytt)

Herons have been roosting in the heronry trees by Junior’s flat all winter and they were present and noisy when we were there

A close male Long-tailed Duck (havelle)

February no different

The first week of February is done and dusted and I cannot say that things have got better yet. A Wood Pigeon flying north may count as my first spring migrant of the year although could have just been an overwintering  bird moving between feeding sites and I did have a Greylag a couple of weeks ago that may also qualify for that distinction. Although why either of these birds would be heading north when temperatures are still constantly way below zero is anyone's guess.

A Black Woodpecker gave a nice performance on Thursday as both it and a Great Spotted were seemingly finding lots of food in some dead spruce trees. Otherwise it has really just been same old, same old. A trip to Tromsø this weekend to see Jr fills me with the promise of finding white-winged gulls and rare eiders but will probably be a failure judging by the lack of records of anything exciting on either eBird or Artsobservasjoner.

this Grey Heron (hegre) had found some open water but I don't think there were any fish for it

whereas this Water Rail (vannrikse) was happy to eat porridge oats that had been put out for it

adult male Goshawk (hønsehauk) back in a favoured tree in Maridalen suggests his mind is turning to the breeding season and we may soon see some display

And these are still easy to find and for the first time in sunshine:

Farewell January you will not be missed

The last week of January has been quite like the preceding three, i.e uninspiring, with the exception of reacquainting myself with my Hazel Grouse. We can now look forward to February with hopefully some cloudless, freezing cold, nocturnal trips interrupted only by the sound of trees cracking in the cold, owls of various sightings hooting and northern lights flickering overhead. By the end of the month the very first spring migrants will also with luck have arrived and then we can really look forward to the spring and all the bounties it brings.

I have had a few walks in the forest but it is incredibly quiet there with, other than the HG, hardly a bird to see or hear. There are ZERO finches in the forest and even in more suburban areas with feeders there are hardly any so a flock of 18 Hawfinches that I came across at Østensjøvannet one day was quite a surprise.

A noisy Nutcracker (nøttekråke) was one of only a handfull of birds seen on my forest walks but it is always a good bird to see.

the Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) has become harder to see again and when it does give itself up it is usually high up as here with a Magpie (skjære)

Mallards (stokkand) at Østensjøvannet

where this female Teal (krikkand) is still hanging around

and where with some patience Water Rails (vannrike) can be seen

an unusually large flock of Hawfinch (kjernebiter)

Woodpeckers are not really making themselves known yet although I have heard a drumming Great Spotted and this female Black Woodpecker was making a lot of noise hacking away at a dead tree trunk

these are still entertaining me