The Awesome Twosome

Anyone unfortunate enough to be reading this blog last winter may well remember that I developed an unhealthy obsession for Hawk Owls (haukugle) and Pine Grosbeaks (konglebit) and had a wet dream of seeing the owl catching the grosbeak. The closest I came was seeing (and filming) the two species from the same spot which it does have to be said was a quite awesome experience.

I thought that last year would be a one off opportunity with these two magical (at least for a Brit) species but today I again got to see both. First whilst on a flat part of the slalom slopes the unmistakeable shape of hawkie on the top of a pine revealed itself and then less than an hour later whilst sitting on a chair lift Mrs Oslobirder casually said "bird". As we hadn't seen a single bird in 2 hours other than hawkie I found her nonchalance to be a little too cool. I soon saw the bird in question in the top of a snow decked spruce tree and then saw that there were at least 15 and the bird was no simple bird but Piney! Of course the view from a moving chair lift without bins doesn't go into the category of awesome views but the two species are for me the Awesome Twosome.

The day finished with a pre roost gathering of 60 Ravens performing air acrobatics. A single Great Tit (kjøttmeis) was the fourth species of bird I saw today but it isn't always about quantity.

Owls

A family skiing break at Hafjell, three hours drive north of Oslo, has given me my first dose of Hawkie for 2014. Whilst racing down the slopes. I saw a familiar shape gliding over the piste and landing on the top of a spruce. It remained on the top of the same tree for an hour allowing it to be admired from both the piste and from the chair lift! That there is owl food here was confirmed by seeing a huge vole emerging from a hole under the chair lift and wadling over the snow. There are also lots of distinctive hare tracks in the snow but they are more likely to be Golden Eagle food.

I have yet to hear Tengmalm's Owl at night but did have a tree top Pygmy Owl on the drive up. My next goal is to locate Pine Grosbeaks and Siberian Jay.