Sorry David

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of my exceptional ability to fail to take exceptionally good videos. I am not talking about my videos being shaky and out of focus as that at least means I took the video, no I’m talking about all the videos I fail to take because of my continued inability to press the record button.

 

Yesterday evening saw yet another monumental f**k up and quite possibly the all-time best video that I never took when I had a Great Grey Owl at about 15m range with a large vole in its bill. The vole was still alive and its feet twitching when the owl delivered the killer bite to the head, ate the head and then swallowed the body all whilst looking at me. The light was good, it was in sharp focus and I was holding the superzoom steady but had I pressed record? I thought I had, I even thought I had checked the red circle was showing in the top right corner of the view finder. But no, of course, I hadn’t and I am still kicking myself.

We are talking about a video (that wasn’t) so incredibly good that David Attenborough would have paid me for the honour of narrating it.

 

This video which was taken immediately after has me expressing my utter contempt for myself whilst the owl looks on….

Great Grey Owl (lappugle) just after it swallowed a big vole but you'll just have to take my word for that as I FAILED to film it

This happening arose as Jack accompanied me on a trip to deepest Hedmark to try to get to the bottom of the GGO situation anno 2026. We checked 4 platforms and 2 old Buzzard nests without finding any incubating GGs. At the platform that I have visited twice before in April the pair were present and the female was very aggressive with bill clicking beginning when we were 50m away and had yet to see her. She also adopted a threat posture and looked like she might fly at us at any moment. Her bill clicking also brought the male in who sat a bit less open but also clicked at us. This aggression from GGO when they do not have young to protect is most unusual (perhaps unprecedented) as is the fact that the pair clearly remains in breeding modus but have not yet laid eggs and it is surely too late now.

the female in threat posture

the male

the males

the pair with the female on the left

The hunting bird we saw was an encouraging sign but the fact it ate the vole rather than flying off with it to feed a mate leaves me not knowing whether or not it was a breeding bird. I do know of an occupied nest but have yet to visit that site as it has been important that I find my own birds but I may have to give up on that hope for this year.

We ruined our finger nails scratching on trunks under every woodpecker hole we saw with only a Great Spotted pecker ever flying out but at a nestbox we did finally find breeding Tengmalm’s although it was Jack who scratched so I still do not know if I have a technique that works.

Other birds seen were a couple of Capers but again females, Black Grouse, Wryneck and Woodcock but it was a cold day with temperatures falling below zero as soon as it got dark and that probably caused less activity than we could have hoped for.

 

we had two roadside sightings of Moose

 

Back in Oslo this morning I was faced with the realisation that springs undoubted highlight - the wader migration at Svellet - is pretty much over. Water levels rose another 20cm yesterday to 4.03m and whilst there is still mud and shallow water there are clearly few remaining areas where there is food in the mud and wader numbers were nearly halved from yesterday and many were just roosting rather than feeding. It is a travesty that such an internationally important staging post for shorebirds cannot be managed better but that pretty much sums up «conservation» in the world’s richest and «best» country.

Svellet 6th May. There is still (dry) mud but water levels have risen a lot

In Maridalen it looks like the 3^rd Lapwing nest has now hatched with there being four young near it and no bird still incubating and yesterday’s brood of three is actually four but I never saw these two broods simultaneously so there remains a very small chance that one single brood of four 1-2 day old young was able to cross a ditch.

a brood of day old Lapwing (vipe)

rarity of the day was this all black corvid on the Lapwing field. I concluded with it being a 2cy Rook (kornkråke) rather than a Carrion Crow (svartkråke) but it ain't always straightforward especially at distance in heat haze. Interestingly the Lapwings which always tried to chase away any intruding Hooded Crows left this bird alone

Forced to twitch to get a feeling of spring

The progression of spring has not met my always high expectations. Lots of fog and temperatures only just over zero seem to be holding birds back with ice still on all water other than some streams and rivers, snow still covering most fields and the chance of a large spring flood seeming to be reduced.

Trips to the Glomma and Aurskog-Høland have revealed lots of Whooper Swans which are definitely on the move but there are not may other waterfowl moving yet. If the main flock of Taiga Beans have arrived then they are hiding themselves very well and I have only found four on two visits with one pair flying around calling and clearly not managing to find any kin. I have managed to twitch a Bewick’s Swan and a flock of White-fronted Geese but have not found my bird finding boots so far this year and a visit to a foggy Østensjøvannet today resulted in me twitching others finds in the terms of a male Stonechat and a nice adult Rook.

Maridalen is just white with ice, snow and fog and there is no evidence of spring migrants other than three Whooper Swans which are back. The bird I feel is most notably missing so far this spring is Mistle Thrush which was a very absentee on trips out east. I assume there is some cold weather further south that is holding them, and a number of other species, back.

Bewick's Swan (dvergsavne). This is the only bird to be seen in Norway so far this year and is a species that I think is a good candidate to become a national rarity not so much as it is difficult to identify but more because it has now become a genuinely rare species in the country. Many records now are, such as this one, of birds mixed up with spring flocks of Whooper Swans and turn up in similar areas each spring suggesting they are returning birds. This one is in the same area as a pair in 2023 and upto three birds last year. I should look at the bill markings to see if it is a bird from a previous year.

The bird was found on Friday amongst 300 Whoopers. I had been there on Thursday when there were only 130 Whoopers and despite it being top of mind did not see anything smaller amongst them.

Lapwings (vipe) have not come to Maridalen or fields by Glomma but there was a big concentration by Hellesjøvannet yesterday with 70 birds considered a very high count nowadays

a pair of Taiga Beans. There was another pair about 50m away but no big flock yet. I wonder if the 12 I had last week were part of the regular flock or perhaps from another population and were just passing through.

White-fronted Geese (tundragås) with Greylags and Canada Geese. The flapping bird has particularly impressive belly barring

there are 10 White-fronts in this shot

today's Rook (kornkråke) with a Hooded Crow (kråke) at Østensjøvannet. A number of records in the Oslo area in the last few days show that the very small spring passage of the species is occuring now

and a nice male Stonechat (svartstrupe) which was in exactly the same area as a bird 3 years ago

these large hairy caterpillars seem to be a very important part of the diet of the early returning Stonchats. That no other insect eating species seem to feed on them quite so much makes me wonder if they are a poisonous species and only Stonechats have developed the ability to eat them

Easter reprieves itself

I may have had to leave Oslo but Easter did eventually deliver the always hoped for good birding of the spring festive season.

There was also some luck involved. I am sleeping poorly at the moment which often results in me leaving the house for a quick early trip to Maridalen. On Monday though I awoke at 02:50 and feeling rather perky I decided to get up and put in action a plan I had been hatching: head north to Hedmark to find some Great Grey Owl nest sites, twitch a returning Yellow-legged Gull in Hamar and see anything else that might turn up.

The drive went quickly and when I had my first stop at 5am the skies were lightening up and as I got out of the car to scan some recently felled forest there was a cacophany of noise from thrushes but also clearly larger birds. The Black Grouse were not to mistake but I was at a bit of a loss as to another bird. It reminded me a bit of Red-throated Diver but the noise was coming from a pine tree… I could just make out a large bird and it was a female Capercaille and another was calling close by. This is the peak time for leks so I was not sure why they were not at a lek but maybe they have already mated. Another noise also caught my attention and I had a feeling I knew what it might be. I walked towards the noise and saw what was clearly a raptor nest in a large pine and there was a big heading sticking up from it - I had found Great Grey Owls in a natural nest! What was even better was the terrain meant I could look down on to the nest - I had struck gold. The female was clearly calling to let her mate know she was hungry and quite soon I was able to watch him fly in with a vole for her which caused her to call lots. The male then spotted and flew towards me to check me out😊 

This is the first nest I have found completely on my own so I was chuffed.

I enjoyed the owls for a bit and then drove on hoping to find more owls hunting. That didn’t happen but I had three more female Capers and I visited a platform I knew about and had a GG on it but it couldn’t beat «my» nest.

Hamar and a dirty twitch followed and I saw the gull even if I didn’t manage any photos but was just happy with the tick and couldn’t wait to leave the town. The nearby delta at Åkersvika was a bit disappointing but a nearby Rookery was a novel sight for me as this species it incredibly local in Norway.

I had by now got news of a booming Bitteren and a singing Black Redstart back Oslo way and although it was only 11am the day already felt old. I decided that the Black Red would be enough for the day as it was literally on the way home and was able to see it fairly quickly.

The Bittern only had to wait a day and successfully twitched yesterday. It was at Hellesjøvannet where I heard the last of my only two other Norwegian Bitterns back in 2013 but unlike then I actually saw the bird this time and managed a fairly decent recording of the booms. Just like with GGO the very deep «song» is very difficult to localise as it is almost louder the further away it is and in addition it only sang every 20-30 minutes but eventually we reckoned it had to be less than 100m from us in a stretch of reeds that were less than 10m wide. I thought the thermal imager would make it easy to find but it picked up nothing. I switched to continual scanning with the scope and after a looong time it was finally there walking through the reeds. I took up my camera but didn’t even know where to point it and returning to the scope it had vanished again.

female Great Grey Owl (lappugle) on the nest before sunsrise

the male checking me out after it had delivered a vole to his mate

filming the nest after sunrise

enjoying? the sun. For a species that is built to survive freezing winters and hunt in snow I am surprised at how far south they have started breeding and they do not seem to keen on strong sunlight

the nest from below. I am not sure which raptor built it

this short video is taken with the superzoom and phone and you can hear the begging calls of the female. I need to edit videos I took with the bazooka which include the food delivery and will post later

the platform nest

the female Capercaille (storfugl) that I saw after having first heard it and not recognised the call

The call can be heard in this video after footage of another female I had along the road. At the end some distant Black Grouse (orrfugl) can also be heard

these two females were far more easy to observe. They had very different plumages with one being much paler and also having a large red skin area above the eye. I do not know if this is age related

this female was darker and lacked an obvious area of red skin above the eye

the paler female with a lot of red above the eye and also an almost male like "beard"

this one also puffed herself up in a way which I considered to be male like

the paler bird

male Black Redstart (svartrødstjert). The male that bred at the same site last year was a 2cy whereas this bird is a full adult. It is therefore reasonable to assume it is the same bird one year older

Hellesjøvannet on a cold (only +5) and wet (constant drizzle) day which maybe explains the infrequent booming from the Bittern (rørdrum) which chose to boom from the narrow belt of reeds in the middle rather than the more extensive reedbed to the right

The booming can be heard surprisingly well in this video which is much better than the video in my post from 2013 which I have linked to above. As it sang so infrequently I only managed to press the record button after it first started so it lacks the initial noises. The video has 4 different sequences.

a Rookery close to Hamar. The species is exceptionally local in Norway but it clearly has n problem being close to people. In addition to the rookery being right by houses the birds were also feeding in gardens

even if I didn't manage a picture of my first Norwegian Yellow-legged Gull (which is paired to a Lesser Black-backed) I did manage a photo of mating Lesser Black-backeds which are ignoring the plastic owl which is supposed to scare them off

the drizzle at Hellesjøvannet had caused a concentration of all three hirundines. Here a Sand Martin (sandsvale)

Sand Martin and Swallow (låvesvale)

it may be a pants photo but all three species are visible

I spent little time in Maridalen and this was the highlight - two female Pintail (stjertand). This is not an annual species and previously has always been pairs or single males so two females was something different