The treatment starts

When one is trying to overcome an addiction there are two types of treatment. The most brutal is cold turkey and is perhaps the most effective but there is a less harsh alternative. One can swap the hard stuff for something softer and then reduce the daily dose until one manages to wean oneself off. It has been suggested that I should swap my Hawk Owls for Gulls, with Gulls even being described as a “medicine” but I see this just as the words of a persuasive dealer. I’m sure that I will be offered a free Iceland Gull but then soon I’ll be trawling the docks for Caspian Gulls or even hybrids. I am strong enough to avoid that stuff!

What I need, is to swap the Owls for something small and colourful that I can find more easily and enjoy in larger quantities but which will be easier to stop with over time. Something like Pine Grosbeaks and I know exactly where to find them!

I took it upon myself to stop Rune following me down the Hawk Owl high so took him with me to trawl Maridalen today looking for our soft Grosbeak high. My usual dealer was not hanging out in his usual place at Hauger so we drove slowly around looking for more. At Sandermosen we found what we were looking for. Sitting on top of a spruce having a preen were four males and a female Pine Grosbeak. I really don’t know if they are less addictive!

Although, as usual, the tree was high and the lighting poor (it was also snowing) they showed themselves off and also called softly occasionally. It is strange that this group of five contained four adult males whereas the group of 11 in Oppland didn’t contain a single adult (red) male.

There was lots of stretching and preening. In this flock of four males and one female these two males seemed good buddies

The female has a stretch but gets little attention from these two guys

Rune got his high but looked to be in control of himself and had to return to work. I however had more time. I tried to find the Grey-headed Woodpecker at the feeding station but without luck although a rare winter Chaffinch was a good find. I did need another hit though so went back to Hauger and, what do you know, they were back. This time a flock of 17. They also called only occasionally but moved from tree to tree every couple of minutes. Given how thorough they seem to be in each tree there can’t be much food left for them in this particular area. The whole flock moved together and I have two pictures of tree tops which contain all 17 birds but if you can only see a couple of them if you are lucky – as I have said before they are an incredibly unobtrusive bird!

Believe it or not there are 17 Pine Grosbeaks in this tree - I know because I counted them when they flew out

And 17 in this tree.....

I managed to see 7 in the picture

Some other photo opportunities presented themselves today:

Jay (nøttseskrike)

Tree Sparrow (pilfink)

young roe deer (rådyr)

Treatment required

An addict becomes good at hiding his dependency from those around him. Today Rune thought that we were going to Halden to look for a Kingfisher (isfugl). A Kingfisher has been seen there and yes, it is only the 5^th one seen in Norway this year (after the run of cold winters killed off the small Norwegian population), and yes it would be a year tick and yes it is a nice bird, but that was not the real reason for the trip. I needed my fix and thought there might be some good stuff to be had in Østfold.

As it turned out I nearly over-dosed and will be booking myself in for some intensive anti-addiction therapy as even I can now admit I have a problem (and that’s the first step, right?)

I kept up the pretence that we were looking for Kingfisher for 2 hours even though it was bitterly cold (-15C), we were close to a smelly sewage treatment plant and could see Norway’s only nuclear reactor – boy is Halden an attractive town! For our troubles we did see a rare winter Moorhen (sivhøne), Dipper (fossekal), Long-tailed Tits (stjertmeis) and a few duck including a Teal (krikkand).

I didn’t need to reveal my need for a hit to Rune as I knew he would want to move on before me. I deftly suggested that the scenic trip through forests close to the Swedish border would be a good route home. I mentioned possible Capercaille (storfugl) and Golden Eagle (kongørn) but that was just a smoke screen. As we drove from Halden towards Ørje we drove through frost covered farmland with scattered woodland. A Great Grey Shrike (varsler) was nice but my habit is for much harder stuff now and I was getting desperate. 

With my level of dependency you develop a  highly tuned radar for possible dealers and I spotted one hanging around, as usual, close to the road. I was still in control of my craving though so I casually mentioned to Rune that there may been a dealer but it was probably just a Crow (kråke). He had to reverse the car so we could see it and yes it was my dealer. I was still acting nonchalantly though despite my stomach already aching in expectation of what was coming. I let Rune go ahead of me and get his fill whilst I quietly savoured my first hit of the day. Enjoying my high we then continued past Ørje and towards Rømskogen. I was in another world and it was Rune who spotted the next dealer (I am worried that he too is becoming addicted). Now there was no holding us back as we both filled our boots. Giddy with the high we continued driving. By now I was good for nearly nothing but Rune spotted something in a field – a fox. After enjoying this we were about to drive on something attracted my attention. Another dealer! This one shamelessly sitting out in the open in a garden! This was too much, I tried to resist but I couldn’t stop myself and had my third hit of the day. With such undiluted, high quality stuff this is a dangerous amount and I nearly overdosed! As I sit here now I realise how lucky I was not to go over the edge and realise that I have an addiction. There you go, I said it: “I AM ADDICTED TO HAWK OWLS”.

To try to show to everyone that I am serious about treating my addiction I will only show two pictures of each owl although would have loved to show more!

Three Hawk Owls (haukugle) in a day in Østfold must be unique experience and in addition all were new birds. All were in farmland, by roads and in the vicinity of houses. The first one was 150 metres from the road and caught a mouse in front of our eyes so gave me my first successful hunt. It flew fairly directly from the tree top towards the prey without hovering although did use its tail as sort of brake to control its descent before dropping in the grass. It caught the mouse in long grass so we didn’t witness the actual capture and of course the autofocus couldn’t keep up with the action but we did see if flying off with a rodents tail dangling out of its talons.

Hawk Owl (haukugle) #1

a mouse tail hangs from the talons

The second one was sitting right by the road and gave the best views in great light.

Hawk Owl #2 - and the best picture I managed today

The third bird was sat 10metres from the road on top of a small tree in a garden! There were 40 Greenfinches resting in trees but I suspect that the owl was after mice attracted to the bird food that was attracting the Greenfinches.

Hawk Owl #3

They frequently tilt their heads and look very quizical

And some other sightings:

Moorhen (sivhøne) 1st winter

roe deer (rådyr)

 

Good day in Maridalen

Maridalen showed off its best side today. With a blue sky, little wind and temperatures down to -15C it was certainly a chilly day but good birding conditions! A Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) sat on top of a roadside tree in the same place I had one over a month ago and where others have also seen one recently so this looks like to be a pretty reliable place to find one at the moment.

Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) Maridalen

Four Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit) were in the same trees as last week although they quickly moved on. They were quite vocal though which made locating them easier than it has been other times.

Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit)

even in silhouette, Pine Grosbeaks are readily identifiable with their long tails and thick bills

 At one of the feeding stations I got a shock when a female Grey-headed Woodpecker (gråspett) flew past the car just seconds after I had stopped. It flew by so low that I was sure it was using the feeding station but it did not return in the next hour-and-a-half. The bird that was here two winters ago took me about 10 hours to see so there is every chance that this one will winter in the area but will only pop into the feeding station very occasionally. Whilst waiting, in addition to freezing my b*l’cks off, I heard a Black Woodpeckers (svartspett), and had good views of 11 Bullfinches (dompap), 5 species of Tit, Treecreeper, Nuthatch, Jay and a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers.

Earlier in the day I had gone looking for Hawk Owls where we had seen them on Friday but without luck. Best birds were a couple of Goshawks (hønsehauk) and a flyover Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (dvergspett) which gave me four species of  ‘pecker in a day. I also checked out Torkilstranda in Drøbak which was home to multiple Iceland Gullls (grønlandsmåke) last winter but today there were only 100 or so Herring Gulls (gråmåke). Three Hawfinches (kjernebiter) nearby were a good sighting.

Male Bullfinch (dompap) feeding on sunflower seeds