Normally at this time of
the year I am writing my end of year summary but there has just been too much
happening for that to happen yet.
Pine Grosbeaks, Great
Grey Owls and December guiding have kept me too busy to reminisce but today it
looked like things were calming down and xmas cheer was going to take over.
Mrs OB, The Beast and I
had been for a morning walk in Maridalen where we saw many people looking for
the GGO. My phone died (are you paying attention Santa?) and didn’t come back
to life until we were in the car and heading home. It pinged with a message
from Halvard H who was out on his boat (he and his boat are hardy soals) and
there was a rather mouth-watering picture of a White-billed Diver which is a
species I have not seen in Oslo or Akershus. Halvard offered to pick me up from
Bygdøy and half an hour later I boarded the boat full of expectations. The
fjord was dead flat, and we made good time to where the bird had been, but was
now not be, seen... We cruised around and thankfully it didn’t take too long to
find it behind a small island. And did it show well - hell yeh! The bird was
not a 1st winter but was probably in its 2nd winter rather than being an adult.
It looked healthy and dived long and far but it did keep closing its right eye
whilst keeping its left eye open which made me wonder whether it was ill in
some way.
I put out a message that
the bird was present and got a reply from Andreas G that he was on the island
of Nakholmen and he wondered whether the bird would be visible to him. It
apparantly was but as an unidentifiable dot (which I imagine it would
unfortunately have been the case for anyone trying to see it from land although if one could get to the southern tip of Malmøya then that would offer reasonable views) and he
jumped at the chance of a closer look when Halvard offered to pick him up
aswell.
Halvard was a real star
today and this was a well-deserved reward for him. Andreas used to have a
monoply of finding good birds from his boat but Halvard is challenging him now.
Last Sunday Halvard raced from the fjord to Maridalen for the GGO and today it
was my turn to do the opposite for a WBD 😊
White-billed Diver (gulnebblom)
notice how the right eye was often closed
pictures taken right after each other with right eye closed and left eye open. Bird may be ill or injured
here with Oslo city centre in the background including the Radisson Plaza hotel which also featured as the backdrop for one of my Piney photos. We saw the bird in both Oslo and Akershus counties although it only just crossed the county line into Oslo
and here Holmenkollen in the background
the sea really was calm
the way it holds its head and bill pointing up is very distinctive
Today I was guiding
Stephen (see his Belgian Birding blog here) who had come from the low countries
with one bird in mind: Pine Grosbeak! Previous trips to Lapland had not
delivered the species so Oslo it was.
Before it got light we
tried for the GGO (along with a few other hopeful punters) but without luck although as I predicted it did turn up in the late afternoon and entertained those who were wise
enough to give it a second go. Grosbeaks were much more cooperative though and
we had birds at two sites (2+16). The flock of 16 had been discovered a couple
of days previously by Mr Grosbeak himself, aka Stig Johan Kalvatn and are the
most urban birds so far as you will see in the pictures.
Stephen also had the
December issue of Birdwatch magazine with him which had one of my pictures in it.
I wonder how much chasing up I will have to do this time before they pay for it….?
Pine Grosbeak in need of energy
another selfie..
Stephen enjoying the Grosbeaks. Seconds earlier a man had walked under a male at less than 50cm distance without him or the bird reacting
I finished my post on
Monday by saying that I had been unable to find the GGO that day. Well even
though I had been unable to find it the bird was seen by a local around sunset
and then on Tuesday was seen at both sunrise and sunset (not that there is much
sun involved in these events at the moment) although I was unable to find it
in between. I did see it at sunset though and then returned early on Wednesday morning
when I was able to follow it for the entire day. I had it hunting from before
sunrise and then at 09:45 it retired into the safety of some spruce trees and
slept on the same branch until 15:00 when it then came out and hunted again (no
wonder I had not been able to find it on Monday or Tuesday during the morning
as I didn’t start looking until 10am at which time it would have retired for
its nap). I did not witness a successful hunt but I assume it is also hunting
through the night. The fact that it is sleeping and not hunting in the day is an
indication though that it is finding enough food at night. I still haven’t seen
any mice or their tracks in the snow but did hear one today.
I had been intending to
keep the location of the owl a secret as they invariably attract a lot of
photographers which often causes disturbance to the bird when it is hunting but
the location of this bird right by a road means it has not been possible to keep
it a secret so I have instead now very publicly announced where the bird is and
told everyone to keep to the road and behave themselves! Hopefully this will prove
to be the right decision.
I have a lot of images
and video of the owl taken on Tuesday afternoon and from all day on Wednesday.
Even in the gloom before sunrise and after sunset I was able to take perfectly
acceptable photos by bumping the ISO up to 25600. I also had photos taken at
lower ISO that looked pitch black but was able to salvage them in PSE. I do not
bother taking pictures in RAW because of the size of the files and additional
time taken processing them and when you see how much it is possible to recover from
a seemingly ruined JPEG file I feel vindicated in my decision.
Great Grey Owl (lappugle) hunting in the morning
asleep during the day
for a very short period in the afternoon the suns rays hit the bird
none of these images have been edited and show how much the colour of photos can change. All the shots were taken in very quick succession
hunting in the afternoon
I had a few opportunities to take flight shots in the afternoon but had the Beast with me and this was the best I managed. Apparently the bird can be aged as 3cy+ but better pictures are needed to be more specific. It is possible to see that there are two generations of secondary feathers
This picture was taken
with ISO 6400, 1/320s, f 6.3. As can be seen, the original JPEG is almost black but I have managed to lighten it up greatly in PSE. I don’t bother with taking
in RAW and when you can see how much can be recovered from a JPEG then I feel
vindicated
this picture was taken at 15:34 when it really was dark but ISO 25600 does the trick!
We all have our
favourite birds and dream about finding something rare. I have my well
documented obsession with Piney and Hawkie but Great Grey Owl is another
species that I can’t get enough of and one which I have long had plans of
finding in Maridalen. I have picked out all the likely looking places for the
species and check them religiously when I drive past them. These are the same
places where I would hope to find Pygmy Owl or Hawkie but the complete lack of
both these species this autumn/winter is a sign of a lack of rodents in these
parts. That doesn’t stop me from looking though as there are Great Grey Owls
out there and their quest for food means that they can turn up (briefly) in
many places.
On Sunday I popped out
to check on Piney as I have some more guiding for them this week. 5 very
cooperative birds were present (10 on Saturday) and I reckon there are just
enough berries for the birds to hang around here a few more days.
I thought I had just
enough time (I had said I was popping out for "half an hour"...) to take the
scenic route home via Maridalen. The Great Grey Shrike was present in the same
place as last week which is a positive sign with regards to rodents. I turned
the car round to try to see it better but it had vanished. I then made a very
fortuitous decision. I could have driven home or turned around again and driven
my usual route around Maridalen but decided instead to take the road less traveled. As I drove along a stretch of road that is not part of my usual
route I drove past a clearing and remembered that this was actually a very
likely looking place for owls and made a mental note to check here more often.
Then with that thought still going through my mind I saw a pale grey shape in a
tree on the far side of the clearing. It could have been a plastic bag or a
large piece of loose bark but it could also be something else. I quickly
stopped the car, lowered the window, raised my bins, refocused my bins which
had last been used for Piney at 2 meters range, and BOOM. GREAT GREY OWL IN DA
HOOD MAN. A dream come true :-)
I enjoyed it for a good
while and then collected Mrs and Jr Jr OB so they could see their first GGO. Jr
wasn’t interested though (would have meant changing out of her pyjamas...) It
stayed glued to the same perch which wasn’t a good sign with regards
availability of food or the birds energy levels (my previous experience with
the species is that they frequently move to a new perch if they are having no
joy at their current position). I was unable to find it today and a check under
yesterday’s perch didn’t reveal any pellets.
Great Grey Owl is a new species for Maridalen and in a sign of what an amazing year 2019 has been is the 7th new species for the Dale this year (only 1 in 2018, 6 in 2017 and 3 in 2016) and takes the total to 214 species of which I have now seen 195.
it started snowing and the snow settled on the head of the owl!
The grey, wet weather continues and is currently forecast to continue into the foreseeable future so that dream of a white Christmas won’t be coming true.
I visited Fornebu for the first time in a while. There are no Bearded Tits or Kingfisher this winter but three Water Rails called from the reedbeds and there were quite a few finches including a single Arctic Redpoll. On the sea I found 26 Velvet Scoters so maybe (and hopefully) their numbers are increasing as the winter progresses.
Yesterday’s 9 Grosbeaks were still present as was the Great Grey Shrike in Maridalen which seems to be a bit more settled now and a bit more photogenic.
Great Grey Shrike (varsler) - solid black lores suggest an adult but it also has a very fait wingbar which is a juvenile character. Probably a 1cy male
head shaking Pine Grosbeak (konglebit)
A Redpoll (gråsisik) and probably a Lesser (caberet) - I did have another very obvious caberet in the flock
Arctic Redpoll (polarsisik) with Common Redpolls. I flight this bird had a large white rump and other photos show it to have very pointed tail feathers which make it a 1cy and also explains the streaky plumage
