February guiding

I was guiding yesterday and despite fog we had a good day. I took Tony who was visiting Oslo from Manchester to Maridalen and we trudged through snow and peered through the fog and were rewarded with Hawk Owl, Three-toed Woodpecker, Hazel Grouse, Dipper, Crossbill and Crested Tit amongst others.

I had been very anxious that the forecast fog was going to be so thick that we wouldn’t see beyond the tips of our noses but although it wasn’t that bad it did mean that for example scanning distant tree tops for anything interesting was out of the question. The Hawk Owl was located by walking around its recently favoured areas (we walked 9km in total during the day) and it was Tony’s very keen eyes that spotted it perched lowish down in a tree. We watched it for a good while and it changed perch twice and whilst clearly looking and listening for rodents it once again did not make an attempt to catch anything. It was in an area where Moose have been feeding and there was some bare ground exposed and I believe this may make hunting easier for the owl.

The ‘pecker that misses a toe and the Hazel Grouse were found in expected sites but we had precious little else in the forest with for example not a single tit of any species except at feeders.

Hawkie

after preening there appeared a hole which shows just how thick its feathers are but also hints at a real lack of body fat as a result of little food

male Hazel Grouse (jerpe) in a foggy forest

he moved to a birch and was eating catkins high up above our heads as can be seen in the video

male Three-toed Woodpecker (tretåspett). He can be heard drumming in the video

male Brambling (bjørkefink)

Crested Tit (toppmeis)

Dipper (fossekall)