Big Owls

So, tell us about those big owls, I hear you say.

 

Owls are an attractive species for guiding and generally the larger they get the more sought after they are. The occurrence of most species of owl in Scandinavia, and especially the exciting ones, though is correlated with the abundance of rodents which goes in cycles. In the bottom year(s) of the rodent cycle there may be no breeding of owls over huge areas and I have heard of people going on organised trips to Finland especially to see owls and not seeing a single one. In the top years though there can be many owls of a number species and a visit in one of these years will have you scratching your head when other people tell you they were in the same area the previous, or next, year and saw nothing or had to work really hard for their one sighting.

After my success with Great Grey Owl last spring I already have people booked to come over for Great Grey Owl this May but have tried to make it clear that there is no guarantee there will be any breeding this year and therefore without a nest to visit it will be very difficult to find any. I have therefore been very anxious as to how it would be this year. My visits to Owl Rd earlier in the spring revealed only a couple of Tengmalm’s and no GG which was in stark contrast to last year however I have heard that it is better further north in Hedmark, or at least in some areas there, and it therefore seems that rodent numbers are varying locally.

I decided to keep on driving north to Hedmark on Wednesday after having dropped Jr off at the airport and had an afternoon and evening to see what I could find. It was still very early in the season (2 weeks prior to my visit last year when I found two occupied GGO nests) and I did not find any GGO on nests however I have it on good authority that less than a week before a number of birds could be heard at night including by the natural nest I found last year so the birds are clearly there and have just hopefully not laid eggs yet – a visit in two weeks time will confirm the situation. I did have GG at one site though and the bird which must have been a female came to greet me by perching above me and snapping her bill. So, this bird which while not yet incubating eggs on the nearby nest platform was acting in an aggressive way which clearly suggests that she is at least getting ready to nest. What is important now is that rodent numbers remain high enough for the owls to believe they can raise at least some young to fledging. If rodent numbers are on their way down then the owls may give up on their nesting attempts even if they have been singing and mating.

I was happy that I did have one GG under my belt though and the went looking for Ural Owl. I visited the area where I last had breeding birds and a scratch of a tree trunk below a nest box resulted in a female flying out! I really did not expect this to happen for two reasons: firstly Ural Owl females are famous for sitting tight and often not leaving the nest even when the nest box is opened up and two I had really begun to believe there must be something wrong with my trunk scratching technique as it failed completely to work last year with Tengmalm’s even when I knew a hole to be in use.

The owl proceeded to land in a nearby tree where it growled at me and called gruffly. I am not sure what the calling was for – maybe to call in the male (who I did not see) or perhaps meant to scare me off. Whatever the reason, I did not stay long and hopefully she quickly returned to the nest. In 4 to 5 weeks if the eggs have hatched then she will perch close to the nest whilst the young may be visible in the nest hole.

So, very exciting times are ahead but only if rodent numbers don’t crash.

 

Here a few pictures and videos where you can see the anti predator responses of the female of both species.

Greay Grey Owl (lappugle)

can you spot the Ural Owl (slagugle)?

My trip to Hedmark wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to Starene where there were still good flood waters and lots of geese including Tundra Bean and White-fronted. I do love this site! And I also had Wood Lark at one of their usual locations.

Starene

 

Woodlark (trelerke)

Some excitement came on the drive home when I saw smoke and blue lights ahead of me and came across a burning car and fire trucks. A check of the map showed that I had not alternative route and just had to sit it out. It was exciting watching the firemen at work and thankfully I was able to find out that nobody had been injured. The car had just started burning whilst I was being driven and the driver stopped and called the fire brigade. Because it was in the middle of nowhere it took a long time before the fire trucks arrived by which time the car was completely ablaze. To illustrate how isolated we were, I was the first car to arrive from my direction which must have been at least 20 minutes after the fire brigade were called and in the 45 minutes I was stuck there only two other cars arrived behind me.

Woodlark anno 2025

Different species are sending very conflicting signs as to how far spring has sprung. The Taiga Beans (or at least the GPS tagged bird) have moved on to their next staging ground record early and this despite there still being overnight frosts but at the same time only a few Pink-footed Geese have moved through and there have been no significant arrivals of thrushes or finches.

The first Woodlarks arrived at the weekend at their breeding grounds near Gardermoen airport and I paid them homage on Monday although only a single bird showed for me but it showed very well. I would normally combine this trip with a search for the Taigas but I knew they had already moved on so contented myself with the perhaps even more frustrating search for a Bewick’s. I did find one bird after over 30 minutes of searching but as a reward I did get my best views so far.

Maridalen has been very quiet with next to no signs of any new migrants. The Pink-footed Goose flock has finally moved on and a regularly drumming Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is perhaps the only scarce bird around. In the evenings there is still loads of activity from Tawny Owls with a single male constantly singing only a couple of hundred metres from a pair who I don’t think have started mating yet and the female of this pair calls a lot whilst the male sings occasionally.

Woodlark (trelerke)

Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane)

the bill pattern looks to be the same as the third bird from my previous post

Bewicks leading the way and its smaller size is very apparent

Lapwing (vipe) in Maridalen. I have again only seen three the last couple of days

my first Reed Bunting (sivspurv) of the year was the reward of another futile search to find a Stonechat

the pair of White-fronted Geese (tundragås) have reappeared at Bygdøy (the pattern of black barring shows them to be the same) although presumably have never left

pre-Easter magic

Events have conspired to leave me Home Alone this week although I do have the company of my boy, The Beast (that makes it sound like I am becoming fond of him…). Now you may, or most likely may not, feel sorry for me but to be honest this has been great because Easter is my absolute favourite time for birding in Oslo and now I can bird until I, or the Beast, drops.

We have had a return to winter with a good dump of snow but spring is now so far advanced that nothing can stop the migrants from migrating and wintery weather just makes the birds more concentrated.

I have had to do drop offs at the airport twice and this allowed me to catch up with the Woodlarks that breed nearby. This is the traditional site in Akershus county although they do seem to be attempting to establish themselves in other places probably as a result of a warming climate and extensive forestry work which creates new suitable habitat.

Yesterday I decided to take my boy on a long drive and introduce him to the spring joys of Årnestangen and Aurskog-Høland and I think the Bird Gods approved of this selfless act 😉. A snow covered Årnestangen had attracted lots of wildfowl and best of all were Pintail and Shoveler. My first Meadow Pipits of the year were also present and there were generally loads of birds to see.

Onto the fantastic wetlands at Kjelle and it was overflowing with birds. Ther must have been over 1000 wildfowl on this small wetland and I set about going through every single bird. 6 White-fronted Geese were good, a male Pied Wagtail even better but best of all was a Bewick’s Swan. This species is getting rarer and rarer in Norway but is always a species to look out for amongst migrating flocks of Whooper Swans and 350 of the later was a good start point. The bird was a 2cy and I must admit to finding it difficult to identify. It’s small size was immediately apparent but the bill markings are not as obvious as on adult and I spent a good few minutes convincing myself of its identity.

Today, I kept things local and Maridalen did not disappoint for one second. Low cloud meant that passerines were passing low overhead and all morning there was a stream of Chaffinches along with Mistles Thrushes (I counted 67 with a single flock of 27 and this smashes the old Oslo record of 40), Twite, Meadow Pipits and Snow Buntings among others. The absolute highlight, and an Oslo tick to boot, was a Wood Lark. I picked it up on call flying over Kirkeby and then drove to Nes which is the only place I could think it would stop and when I got out of the car it (or another?) was singing above me😊. There is only one other Maridalen record which remarkably enough was exactly one year ago today is almost the exact same place (same bird?).

I passed 50 species in a day, in Maridalen, for this first time this year and here is my checklist 

 

My Oslo list has now risen to 111 with the following additions since my last update:

102       Linnet

103       Crane

104       Teal

105       Gadwall (a twitch to Østensjøvannet)

106       Goosander

107       Buzzard

108       Woodcock

109       Mipit

110       Redwing

111       Woodlark

Bewick's Swan (dvergsvane) and a noticeably larger Whooper Swan (sangsvane)

here it looks positively tiny

my first Kestrel (tårnfalk) of the year and already back in its nestbox

Lapwings (vipe) are getting really quite scarce now and this concentration at Kjelle represented probably most of the local breeders

male Pied Wagtail (svartryggerle) - looks like a good spring for them

migrating Pink-footed Geese (kortnebbgås) at a wintery Årnestangen. Can you spot the Barnacle Geese (hvitkinngås)

an assortment of ducks at Årnestangen. Can you spot the Pintails (stjertand)?

a lonely male Shoveler (skjeand)

6 White-fronted Geese (tundragås) at Kjelle

in flight - looks to be 5 adults and a 2cy

some very rust stained Whoopers

Kjelle

my first Woodlark (trelerke) of the year near Gardermoen

Cranes (trane) in Maridalen

Gadwall (snadderand) at Østensjøvannet

Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese at Årnestangen. The middle bird has a neck collar and its history is shown below

it was ringed in Finland and seems to follow the less used easterly migration route to Svalbard. This is its first sighting in Norway and it will be interesting to know if there are any other sightings this spring to show which route it takes

Woodlark in Maridalen and my 250th species in Oslo!!

a pale Common Buzzard (musvåk) and one that can easily be misidentified as a host of other species

exactly 30 Lapwing on the ice in Maridalen. A record count and it will be interesting to see how many stay to breed

Snow Bunting (snøspurv) in Maridalen

a Whooper Swan with a similar neck was in Maridalen last spring and this is I assume the same bird. It looks painful but is clearly possible to live with