Drumming Three-toed Woodpecker and salt licking Crossbills

A drive around Maridalen this morning revealed temperatures down to -19C. Perhaps because of this there was very little to see or hear and it is now four days since I last saw Hawkie and I expect (s)he has now moved on (or died). Common Crossbills are by far the commonest bird and have been down on the roads quite a lot in small groups of mostly males (females presumably being on eggs). They are known to take grains of sand from forest roads to help with their digestion but in this instance that does not seem to be the case. Rather they seem to be licking at the snow/ice and I am quite sure it is salts they are after which is a well known behaviour in crossbills. I have not seen them on the road in Maridalen which is liberally  salted (and where there is no snow or ice) but they are common on the side roads where I believe they are taking salt that arrives on the tyres of cars.

On Friday I also had a male Three-toed Woodpecker who drummed for a long time and allowed himself to be watched well including some interaction with a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Great Spotted Woodpecker (flaggspett) and Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett). The Three-toed had been drumming and the GS came to investigate although did not drum itself

The male Crossbills (grankorsnebb) gather whilst their mates are already on eggs

they did not appear to be picking up grit/sand but rather licking salts