The sun shone today and the Bird Gods looked down pleasingly
on me but did test me a bit.
I picked up Jim and Mark from the airport soon after
0930 after their Ryan Air flight landed 20 minutes early. Our first stop for
Pine Grosbeaks was not successful and we moved on to the Hawk Owl which showed
really well including in a dog fight with a Magpie. After this we tried for the
Grosbeaks again and had three birds at ridiculously close range in great light.
These were the target species for today as they were both ticks for Jim but we
did of course have one more to look for. Jim had previously seen a GG but as
the view had only been of a head sticking over the rim of a nest in Finland he
was keen to see a a body as well (Mark had seen all 3 species before and was
only along for the ride 😉)
We had the whole afternoon to look for the GG and
just as well as it took 3 hours to find one. Whilst looking we had a GG SHRIKE
hunting and catching an unidentified bird but it wasn’t until 10 past 4 that Mark
calmly announced he had a GG OWL. Only a month ago it would have been dark by
this time but the days are much longer now so it was still nice and light and
we watched her at close range for another hour.
The weather has become very spring like (normally we
would have a metre of snow and temperatures of -10C) and I feel that I am now
on borrowed time with having all three of these species so readily available on
my door step but may the good times continue 😎
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| Piney |
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| GG |
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| Hawkie |
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