Hawk Owl
is back on the streets and this latest batch is of exceptional quality. I went
looking for my dealer again today and as usual he was hanging around a street
light showing off his wares.
I awoke
this morning to 5cm of new snow and mist which was not how I had interpreted yesterday’s
weather forecast. I needed my fix though so I still went looking for the two
Hawk Owls (haukugle) reported yesterday. I found the first one incredibly
easily sat on top of lamppost over the road close to Kroer. I admired him
for a bit in mist and then went looking for the other one hoping there would be
better light there. The mist was even worse at the second location and I couldn’t
see more than 200m and was unable to find the bird. I did make out a Great Grey
Shrike (varsler) in the murk though. Returning to number one the mist had
possibly lifted slightly and he was sitting in exactly the same spot. As usual
with these birds he was completely unfazed as I stood no more than 10 metres
from him. After a few minutes he clearly heard a possible prey item and started
looking intently over his shoulder at the verge on the other side of the road.
I decided to take some steps back, zoom the camera out and increase the shutter
speed to 1/1000 so I had a chance of catching some possible hunting action.
After a few minutes he seemed to lose interest and I needed to put my gloves
on. Inevitably as I did so he flew down and caught a shrew literally right by
the side of the road. I managed some pictures after the act but he then quickly
flew off to eat in peace. Clearly I don't yet have all the skills yet to take successful
action shots although on the upside the resulting pictures are better than my
previous attempts.
 |
| Hawk Owl (haukugle) with shrew caught 50cm from the road |
 |
| that quizical look |
 |
| The marks left in the snow where it caught the shrew (which I presume was under the snow) |
 |
| fluffed up |
 |
| the preferred lamppost |
 |
| with the shrew |
 |
| immediately after capture |
 |
| listening to the shrew, just before it flew down and caught it |
A
garden close by had a large mixed flock of Greenfinches and Tree Sparrows with
three Chaffinches and two Bramblings mixed in.
Whilst
waiting for the mist to lift I went to Drøbak hoping for a couple of easy year
ticks. The Carrion Crow came after I threw some bread out but I failed to find
myself a Little Grebe.
 |
| Carrion Crow (svartkråke) and Hooded Crow (kråke). These birds are clearly a pair |
 |
| Two young Herring Gulls squabbling |
 |
| Carrion Crow |
 |
| Jackdaw (kaie) of the pale collared nordic race |
Driving
back to Oslo I had a look around Maridalen and whilst I tried to find myself
some grosbeaks I thought I would check the latest sightings on my phone and saw
that a Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) had just been seen 25 minutes away in
Sandvika. Well it wasn’t yet 2pm so I had plenty of time (and the grosbeaks
will give themselves up another day). The gull was reported as being by the car
park of a supermarket which backs on to a river. There were a few Herring Gulls
(gråmåke) hanging around when I arrived but nothing paler (not even a potential
hybrid). There is an easy solution to these problems: go in the shop and buy
the cheapest loaf of bread they have and then throw it out. The white-winged
wonder (or more precisely cream-coloured) appeared immediately and was not
backwards in coming forward. This was a particularly large bird so was most
likely a male and was dominant over the Herring Gulls. It came to within a
couple of metres and even at 150mm I could not get the whole bird in shot, at
500mm I could just get the head. With this level of tameness, how long before
it is brandishing a shiny ring?
As
always it was a great bird to see and will hopefully hang around to brighten up
the short, dark winter days.
I
was even able to take an acceptable video with the iphone.
 |
| 1st winter (2cy) Glaucous Gull (polarmåke) taken with 150mm |
 |
| squabbling for food |
 |
| close up, uncropped 500mm |
No comments:
Post a Comment