Checking in on the owls

Yesterday, saw me on a friends and family guiding to the owls in Hedmark. It was very successful if, as always, tiring trip.

Two nesting Great Grey Owls included my back up nest which I visited for the first time and the pair that I have now previously visited which have acted in a very aggressive way without being on the nest. On yesterday’s visit the female again announced her presence by bill snapping when we were 50m away and could not see either her or the nest. She was perched quite high in a tree and continued snapping noisily whilst we watched her. It is quite uncomfortable being there when the bird seems so unhappy/angry so we didn’t hang around but I kept looking over my shoulder as we left just in case she flew at us but instead she flew onto the nesting platform and acted very much as though she was on eggs! But this raises a number of questions:

1.      Why was she not on the nest initially? My experiences with other nesting GGO over the years has always been that the females stay on the nest no matter what.

2.      Why does she continue to be so aggressive in her behaviour? At the other nest we visited the female made no noise and hardly seemed to follow our movements

3.      Why is she so late in egg laying? The eggs (if there actually are some) must surely have been laid since my visit with Jack on 5^th May whereas I know that at the other nest the first egg was laid on 22^nd April which I think is in itself a fairly late date.

the particularly aggressive female GGO in a tree

and then suddenly on the nest platform

and the other GGO nest which is much more luxuriously furnished

A check of the Tengmalm’s nest box resulted in no joy for my trunk scratching but I was able to attach the superzoom to the tripod and lift it up such that I could see through the hole and there were at least two large young in the box. A very thorough search of the area did not reveal any adults or other young that may already have jumped out although mum must have been very close by.

 

We checked just one of the Ural Owls nests. This was the nest where the female flew out when I scratched on 8^th April so with an incubation period of about 4 weeks I was ready for the young to already be large enough that mum was no longer in the box. This meant we need to be very careful as to how we approached the area and we walked a large semi circle around the nest box. The female gave away her presence by bill snapping and when we finally saw her perched about 30m from the box she flew away from the box as though trying to draw us away. Just a couple of steps by us towards the box though brought her right back and then she kept a very close eye on us (although we did not go any closer to the box for both our own safety and also her comfort). One thing that was odd was that she seemed to be panting almost all the time. It was only about +13C so was hardly hot and she wasn’t in direct sunlight but she was pumping her throat with her bill open (but not making any audible noises) for minutes on end. The young did not show themselves in the nest opening so are hopefully not ready to leave for 1-2 weeks.

Ural Owl (slagugle)

 

A stop to listen for Ortolan resulted in no joy and although it may still be a bit too early it would hardly be a surprise if none returned this year. The last confirmed nesting was my record in 2023 and the last two years have only seen a couple of unpaired singing males, one of which is very likely to have been the male from the 2023 nesting. So, it would be no surprise if these birds are now dead and with no recruitment to this population extinction has been unavoidable.

Oslo birding since my last post has continued to be quite uneventful with rain and southerly winds having no noticeable effect. The only highlight was a thirty minute mid afternoon period in Maridalen on the 16^th just after it had stopped raining and when the sun came out. This caused a Falsterbo lite experience with 3 Honey Buzzards, 4 Ospreys, 1 Common Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk and 4 Kestrels moving through. Wrynecks seem to be well established though with no a mating paid and two unpaired males and after struggling with Black Woodpecker I now have a nest that is still being excavated and another where two young were being fed at the entrance. At the nest which is still being excavated I saw no splinters being thrown out but could hear one of the adults (I’m quite sure the female) knocking away inside the hole and also on two occasions drumming inside the hole!

this Black Woodpecker nest must be at least 4 weeks ahead of the other one I found

And an interesting encounter with a Beaver that just swam straight down the white water rapids

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

Early trip to the mountains

the view from Venabu towards Rondane. There should be lots more snow at this time of the year

At the weekend I joined Per Christian for a trip to his cabin in the mountains of Ringebu, 3 hours drive north of Oslo. This was a repeat of a very enjoyable trip in 2022.

 

On the way up we stopped at Starene which is such a great place and I so wish it was closer to Oslo. There were close to 1000 Pink-footed Geese and amongst them we picked out 3 Tundra Beans. The real highlight though was when a young White-tailed Eagle flew in. It flew slowly over the geese, before almost hovering at about 30m altitude and then diving into the panicking geese. Amazingly it took one in flight and then landed with it just out of sight for us (due to a ridge in the field). For some reason it soon flew up minus the goose so presumably the goose somehow escaped the eagle talons once they were on the deck.

Ebird checklist here.

White-tailed Eagle (havørn) with a Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås)

the flooded fields at Starene with Pink-footed Geese above them

 

After this we visited the Taiga Beans at their second Norwegian staging post. This site is rarely visited but is in fact just as traditional as the one closer to Oslo and they also use a far more limited area here with just the same couple of fields used each year. They were mixed in with some Pink-feet and difficult to see but there were ca.80 birds so presumably the whole flock was there and I saw the two with neck collars.

 

After this we went owling. A stop at a Ural Owl nestbox revealed no birds but the thermal imager strongly suggested there was a bird inside. After this we then intended to see lots of Great Grey Owls as we drove forest tracks at dusk. That wasn’t to be the case though and we had precious few other birds which was also to be the case at the cabin. The cabin is at about 950 metres and as expected there was still snow but not very much and there were many bare patches in the mountains. But neither in the mountains or down in the valley could we find many birds over the weekend. No grouse of any kind, and just a few Mistle Thrushes and Chaffinches of migrants. A single Siberian Jay on the feeders at the cabin was of course much appreciated but it was a brief visit and a Golden Eagle was very distant. We also went owling in the area and had definite plans to hear Eagle Owl. The owl was not aware of our plans though but a Tengmalm’s did show well and we had a daytime  Hawk Owl.

On the way back a stop at the Lågendelta in Lillehammer gave a few early migrant waterbirds with 4 Rock Pipits being the highlight.

Ebird checklist here.

the White-tailed Eagle hovering above the geese

and the stooping

it then singled out a bird

this is about a minute later when it flew up prey less

a closer up of the geese as they flew around following the eagle putting them all up

after the geese eventually settled there were quite a few Barnacles (hvitkinngjess) and three Tundra Beans (tundrasædgås) amongst the Pink-feet

same bird

and a second bird with its orange feet allowing it to be easily picked out from the Pink-feet

Taiga Bean Geese in the damp corner of a stubble field where there was rough grassland - a typical habitat

this bird was very distinctive and had me thinking 2cy Greenland White-front for a bit due to all orange bill, slight white around the bill and dark plumage

here it is again. It was a very large bird though so must have been a Taiga Bean but I cannot remember having seen it before

3 Taiga Beans and a Pink-foot

a mixture

Siberian Jay (lavskrike)

Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle)

Hawk Owl

northern lights over Lillehamer

and a much weaker display over the mountains