The Ural Owl has not been seen again since it flew
off to hunt on Saturday evening (analysis of pictures of the head and tail does
strongly suggest that it was indeed the same bird at both locations) so birding
has returned to more normal levels of excitement but it has still been exciting
😊
Things will hopefully go to another level this weekend though
when I visit Kjell on the west coast Last time I was there in November 2018
proved to be a VERY productive trip.
Headlining this weeks Oslo birding has been the
Kingfisher which I found last Friday proving to still be present and also
proving to be as skulky as a Dusky Warbler 😉. I
have frequently heard it but seeing it on the forest stream has proven very
difficult even in flight. I have managed to find it perched just twice but good
photos will have to wait for another time.
Yesterday the first snow of the autumn fell with the
trees on the hills surrounding Oslo having a light smattering on them. This
prompted me to visit the forest today and my usual pair of Hazel Grouse showed
exceptionally well.
Frequent evening trips have shown 1-3 Woodcocks
still present although I expect fewer next week as freezing temperatures are
now forecast.
"my" male Hazel Grouse (jerpe) was his usual confiding self today
using the flash
here the female who was less confiding
the male feeding on buds
here you see quite how close the male came
Kingfisher (isfugl)
snow on the Maridalen alps
a late Blackcap (munk)
Long-tailed Tit (stjertmeis)
one of Maridalen's Pygmy Owls (spurveugle)
Waxwings (sidensvans) are not very numerous but I did bump into this flock
Things have gotten very interesting since Wednesday’s
Ural Owl. That sighting was naturally posted in the local Facebook bird group
which with 7000 members includes people with the whole spectrum of interest in
birds (there are less than 100 birders in Oslo that I would describe as
committed). The next day a comment was posted with a picture asking if this
[the bird in a mobile phone picture] was also a Ural Owl. I assumed the picture
was taken at, or close to, the location of the first sighting but no, the
picture (which was indeed of a Ural Owl) was in a downtown part of Oslo and in
a tree along a street! A couple of local birders searched the streets and
nearby parks that same evening (after dark though) but no owl was seen. The
next day though the owl was again seen and pictures were again posted on FB
asking what it was (it wasn’t a Tawny Owl as an “expert” told the local
newspaper…). On Saturday morning I had decided to take the Beast for a walk
there (only half an hour from home) but whilst still eating my breakfast a
message came through from Kjell Isaksen who lives nearby that he had already found
the owl in a park. The dog walk was forgotten and I jumped on my bike and 10
minutes later I was watching my second Ural Owl in Oslo!!
It was roosting high up in a willow tree that still
had a number of leaves but had been found by the local Crows and Magpies which
it tried to ignore and they all kept a safe distance whilst shouting at it.
There are a number of dense spruce trees in the park and it surprised me that
it hadn’t chosen one of these but even so it was still well hidden and getting
an unobstructed view was nigh on impossible. The news spread very quickly and
many locals came to see it and wondered what the fuss was about. Seeing how large
it was and learning how rare it was impressed the vast majority of “civilians”
though.
I returned in the afternoon with Jr hoping to see it
do something than just dozing (the bird on Wednesday had become active just
after sunset) and sure enough at 16:25 it left its roost. There were few people
left by that time but as you can hear in the video those who were were mightly
impressed to see it in flight. It then proceeded to actively look for food from
perches and was eventually (after I had gone home as Jr’s interest had expired)
followed by Kjell as it flew over some appartments to another area of trees
where he was able to see it by the light of street lamps.
This bird raises two questions. Firstly, is it the
same bird originally seen the previous day about 12km away? A study of pictures
may be able to prove one way or the other but if it is the same bird then it is
just amazing that a normally so secretive species would turn up in such unexpected
locations and be found (most rare birds are of course never seen….). If
it is two different birds then what has caused them to turn up so far out of
range and in urban locations?
The second question is what is it eating in urban Oslo?
There are of course various birds and must be rats and mice but whilst we
watched it in the evening it seemed most interest in dogs and a small pomeranian
being walked under the tree it sat in really caught its attention 😉.
Many people have assumed that there must be something wrong with it and that it
must be starving and desperately looking for food but we really do not know if
that is the case at all (urban sightings seem to be regular in Finland and
Sweden). The park where the second bird is has had sighting of both Hawk Owl
and Short-eared Owl in the last few years so undoubtedly has some natural
attraction for owls.
The owl has not been seen today but will hopefully
turn up again.
Other than the Ural Owl I had a real surprise in Maridalen
with a Kingfisher. For a Kingfisher to still be inland in the middle of
November is a real sigh of how mild it is. With temperatures up to +15C then it
will be a good while before streams freeze over. It was in an area with lots of
beaver activity which has created lots of pools and undoubtedly is attractive
for small fish.
Pygmy Owls have also been showing themselves and there
are a number of different birds in Maridalen this autumn. In one area a male
and a female (based on different calls) seem to have adjacent winter
territories and it will great if they are still around in the spring. I was able
to follow the female on Friday and she visited one of her larders (an old woodpecker
hole) and came out with a dead mouse. With it being so warm the food (dead
meat) in their larders risks going bad so it makes sense to eat it now (rather
than later in the winter when conditions may make hunting impossible) rather
than it going to waste.
the Ural Owls chosen daytime roost on Saturday and some of its admirers
at 16:27 (half a hour after sunset) when it started looking for dinner (or perhaps breakfast?)
trying to ignore an angry Magpie (skjære)
and a Hooded Crow (kråke)
a bad video of a Kingfisher but it nicely sums up how fleeting my meeting with it was
Pygmy Owl (spurveugle) peering out it larder
and with the mouse it took out
in this video you see it eating the mouse and calling
still lots of Parrot Crossbills (furukorsnebb) around
I have started a fair few blog posts describing the
day’s events as the best ever so I will not do that but yesterday may well go
down as one of, if not the, most unexpected days birding I have had in Oslo.
The day started very well with a female Grey-headed
Woodpecker at Fornebu (probably the same bird I saw there a few weeks ago)
which showed particularly well feeding in trees. I followed it for a long time
and did not once hear it tapping (as I would expect from other woodpecker
species) and it only called a couple of times meaning it would be very easy to
miss it. Only a single Bearded Tit revealed itself it me although my birds were
reported by others.
The day took its turn for the unexpected though when
I received a picture from Kjetil Johannessen with just the text “discovered from
the kitchen window”. I did a double take as the picture was of a Ural Owl!!!!
If you had asked me to predict the next new species I would see in Oslo I think
this would have come a long way down the list. With only around 10 pairs known
in Norway and a very sedentary nature it is not a bird you expect to find out
of range. They have a more varied diet than the vole specialists like GG and
Hawk Owl so are less likely to be forced out of range by food shortages but
they do very exceptionally turn up in unexpected places. My first record was
one such wandering bird in October 2012 and a record from a couple of weeks ago
of a bird seen by the motorway south-east of Oslo did suggest that something
was up with the species. But for one to turn up in a small urban wood in Oslo
was not on the cards.
I was a bit stressed when I got the message as dusk
was fast approaching but I was able to arrive just in time and I saw it where
Kjetil had found it (a gang of crows had previously been giving it grief).
After only around 10 minutes though it started looking around and then flew off
into the wood. My thermal imager came into its own though and I was able to
relocate it and we were able to see it clearly looking for food although after
not too long a loose dog and a noisy owner caused it to fly out of sight and in
the failing light (and despite use of the thermal imager) it was lost to us.
Searches today (including by me) failed to refind it but that definitely does
not mean it has gone and I wouldn’t be surprised if it or another turns up
again soon. Hopefully there may be other owls on the move as winters progresses
although there are few records from other places to suggest so.
I did have an owl today though with a very
cooperative Pygmy Owl in Maridalen so also today goes down as a good ‘n.
what a great bird! Ural Owl (slagugle)
A video of the owl with some live commentary from me "...it's about to fly...."
female Grey-headed Woodpecker (gråspett)
it seemed to use its tongue a lot to find food
scaly feet
it spent a lot of time looking in holes and cavities for food
A video of the pecker feeding and also calling a couple of times with a call similar to GS Wood which I have not heard before
just one pic of the Beardie today
In this video the Beardie can be heard calling which is the best (and often only) way to find them
but a few of the Pygmy Owl (spurveugle)
if had one of those fancy cameras with eye follow focus then this could have been a nice flight shot......
The owl can be heard calling here and it came with a number of high pictched and new (for me) calls which I am sure make it a female
