More owls

 Adult female Short-Eared Owl



The are high numbers of grey-sided voles in northern Scandinavia at the moment and consequently the owls are breeding well, rearing large broods of chicks on the abundant food supply. Yesterday I saw Hawk Owls with a large brood, today I saw a brood of seven Short-Eared Owls.

 Short-Eared Owls have beautiful big yellow eyes



Owl chicks are of different ages, by a day or so between each. This is because the female begins to incubate as soon as the first egg is laid. In a brood of seven there is a large range of ages and sizes of the chicks. In this nest there were only four chicks still in the nest. The other three had wondered into the nearby shrubbery, which all helps to ensure that if the nest is brood are attacked by a predator, at least some chicks should survive.

Four owlets in the ground nest of a Short-Eared Owl

with a grey-sided vole at the side - supplied entirely

by the male bird

Hawk Owls

 Adult Hawk Owl

It was raining for a couple of days here in North Norway, so we went for a drive down to Finland for a walk in the pinewoods. The birds were a bit quiet due to the rain, it was only a light drizzle, but it was good to see and hear Waxwings, Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers. And it especially good to come across a pair of Siberian Jays, and a fledged brood of Hawk Owls. There were at least five large fledglings, and the adults were unconcerned about us as they brought in voles, grey-sided, while we were there.

One of the larger owlets

Lapland flowers

Arctic Bell-Heather Casiope tetragona

While looking for birds in north Norway, I find myself walking past some wonderful displays of wild flowers. Here are just a very few selected species. The bell-heather and diapensia grow up on the high plateux, where it is windswept and the plants all grow very low to the ground.

 

Diapensia lapponica

In the lower heaths and bogs one of the mose abundant plants is the Labrador Tea, along with various species of heaths, such as Mountain Heath Phyllodoce caerulea and Bog Rosemary Andromeda polifolia.



 Labrador Tea Ledum palustre

 Lapland Lousewort Pedicularis lapponica

Waders in north Norway

 Spotted redshank

I am up in north Norway at the moment studying high latitude breeding waders. The habitats are lakeside mires within which there are several sub-habitats utilised by various waders for feeding and nest sites. Open water is used by red-necked phalaropes, open sedge is used by broad-billed sandpiper, close growing sedge is used by jack snipe, wood sandpiper and reeves. Spotted redshanks nest on the nearby heath and lead their chicks into the bogs to feed.

 Lakeside mire

 Spotted redshank

Wood sandpiper

Ringing buzzard chicks

Yesterday I was out ringing buzzard chicks with Dave Leitch, Ewan and Jenny. We ringed birds from several broods bringing the group total for 2001 to over fifty chicks. These are quiet raptor chicks, compared with those of most falcons or accipiters. So the whole effort was a relaxed experience with time to appreciate the birds. And even easier as Ewan did all the tree climbing and passed the chicks down to the grown where we ringed them in comfort, then passed them back up to Ewan at the nests.

Here are a few shots of the birds being ringed.