Mission accomplished, kind of, sort of, in a way

Back in the winter of 2012/13 when both Hawkie and Piney appeared simultaneously around Oslo I started have fairly damp dreams of getting a photo of Hawkie with a bloody Piney (preferably adult male) in its talons. As Hawk Owls only very rarely hunt birds this was always going to remain a dream and I soon realised that just seeing them together would be quite the feat and was pretty chuffed when I filmed both from the same spot as can be read in this 12 year old post.

This winter I have heard Grosbeaks whilst watching the owl on a couple of occasions and once had one fly over the owl but never captured it digitally - until yesterday!!

I had to take quite a few spaces backwards but just managed to fit them both in the same shot😊

and here it is the long dreamed of picture!

it was easier to take pictures of the two species when they were alone

Great Spotted Woodpeckers (flaggspett) seem to get quite stressed by the presence of the Hawk Owl and frequently mob it. Here the owl had had enough and was chasing the pecker away

the ow favoured an area around a house and I saw it plunge to the ground right by the wall of the house although it did not catch anything that time

here flying up after its unsuccessful plunge to the ground by the house

here the owl had flown close to 150m and plunged to the ground but again did not catch anything

the owl does not seem to be bothered by people, or horses

but he is bothered by Magpies (skjære) even if he tries to ignore them

there are still large numbers of Goldfinches (stillits) in Maridalen. Here they were finding something to eat on the road although I don't know what

on Monday morning there was an impressive display of mother-of-pearl clouds