This week has seen the final three members of S Cub 6 arriving for duty with Skylark seen on Tuesday and Snow Bunting and Shelduck on Wednesday. I am still to see, or hear, a single member of the band in Maridalen which is still covered in deep snow with no snow free areas yet. There is also lots of snow at Årnestangen and on most fields around the Glomma in Taiga Bean land but a trip to Sweden on Tuesday revealed very little snow from the town of Ski and eastwards. I had hoped that the drive to Sweden would reveal Red Kites but raptors were limited to just a handful of Common Buzzards and a stop at Gjølsjøen revealed my first Lapwings and a pair of Taiga Beans alongside many Skylarks.
A trip to Taiga Bean land yesterday revealed lots of snowy
fields and ice on the river and nothing at all at any of the regular fields
that I visited. However on a stretch of the river north of Årnes there was a
flock of 12. They flew briefly on to a green field by the river where there
were also some Greylags and I have noted previously when they arrive to very
wintery conditions that they seek out fields with autumn sown green crops rather
than trying their luck on stubble fields. With no working GPS collars I have no
idea if the rest of the flock has arrived but expect they have not as it is
still too wintery.
The two female Stonechats are continuing to hang around at
Fornebu and I saw them capturing large hairy caterpillarsso life seems good for
them. A number of new birds have also been found so I hope Maridalen will join
the party next week.
Highlights of the week, and perhaps unsurprisingly for the
time of the year, have been owls but not along Owl Road where visits by others
has revealed no increase in singing Tengmalm’s and if anything fewer birds with
just two birds seeming to be the expected result.
Eagle Owl is a species I have only seen or heard four times
before. Twice in 2013 and again 2014 I visited a nest site in Hedmark and saw, heard
and filmed singing birds just after sunset and was happy with these encounters.
I am not sure as to the current status of this site but believe birds are still
there but a couple of hours drive has for some reason put me off trying for
them again. I do know of a closer site which is the only regular known site in
Oslo and Akershus and visited in 2016. You cannot get close to the birds here
and I only heard one singing distantly – enough for my Akershus list but not
the type of experience that has had me particularly excited about repeating.
Yesterday though I took Jack to listen for it and we didn’t just hear it but
actually saw it!! And now I suddenly want more of them. It sang from when we
arrived at sunset and despite searching and searching with the telescope it took
another half an hour to see it sitting and singing atop a pine tree. Even
though it was now getting quite dark I even managed a photo of sorts. But what
a bird and I think they are very few others who have actually seen these
birds. It was all at quite some range – over 1km – but very enjoyable. When we
first heard the song we were very unsure as to whether it was an Eagle Owl as
it sounded most like a Wood Pigeon and was not how I remember the song and
indeed Merlin also detected it and identified it as a Wood Pigeon…. That ID was
clearly wrong as for starters you wouldn’t hear a WP at such long range but I
must admit finally seeing it was quite a relief. The bird had been clearly
moving from song post to song post as we would hear it from slightly different
places but having now a bit more knowledge of where it is I have hope that a future
visit on a wind free, sunny evening could result in much better scope views.
Seeing it perched in the scope with its big ears sticking up
you realise what a huge bird it is and in reality it should never be confusable
with a Long-eared Owl but with grainy photos the two can sometimes be hard to separate.
Two encounters with Long-eareds this week though have not had me wondering what
they are. I have spotted them flying in the thermal at an expected site but
there has been no singing. There are two explanations for this – either they
have already formed a pair and laid eggs or they have not got into breeding
modus yet. There was still lots of snow on the fields and I am very sure that
they are not yet breeding. The overwintering birds that I followed in 2023 were
present at their roost until the end of February without their being any song
from them. I have previously found a young (non fledged) bird out of the nest in mid May which would mean egg laying at the end of March but this is very
early and you normally encounter young out of the nest in June. I did have a
singing bird on 6th March last year but there was far less snow then
so conditions were different.
We have exciting times ahead of us!
| Eagle Owl! (hubro) at over 1km range and 40 minutes after sunset. If this photo leaves you wondering what you are looking at then the head is to the right, the tail sticking up on the left and the wings are drooped. |
And a couple of videos taken with the thermal of Long-eared Owls flying around. They fly on very elastic wings and seem to float at times but can also perform quick changes in direction and stoop down at each other. Wing clapping was heard but I am not sure it this can be seen in the videos.
| the female Stonechat (svartstrupe) still at Storøykilen |
| Taiga Bean Geese on the Glomma |
| and a pair at Gjølsjen |
| all 12 on the Glomma |