A Great Grey Owl in The Land of the North 6th February 2020

Simon was going to collect us from our hotel at 8am sharp so we could get into the forest at first light which would give us a better chance of connecting with a Great Grey Owl. He thought they would be more active then. It was a lottery of course, it always is but the plan sounded good to me as we only had six hours of birding available today so needed to make use of every minute.

First though, it was breakfast in the hotel and even before that I turned on the televison in our room and found one of those unexpected gems that can sometimes randomly surprise and indeed delight you. It was a programme called Svarlbard Minute by Minute. It was simply a camera crew on a large specially chartered ship (see below) pointing a camera at the coast of Svarlbard and Spitzbergen in particular and letting the broadcast just run and run with no embellishment whatsoever. Nothing much happened but the wild forbidding landscape of Svarlbard and the occasional reindeer and distant polar bear was allowed to fill the screen and the result was a strangely soothing and relaxing experience. A kind of cerebral wallpaper. Look away, go to wash your hands or even go to breakfast and on returning nothing much had changed. It was still Svarlbard, wild and forbidding and stunningly beautiful.

A little research about the programme informed me that NRK, the Norwegian equivalent of our BBC had decided to mark the hundreth anniversary of the Svarlbard Treaty, which granted Norway sovereignty over the Svarlbard archipelago, with the longest slow TV broadcast ever, a marathon nine day, five hour and fifty nine minute continuous programme featuring Spitzbergen, part of the Svarlbard archipelago.

BBC 4, always delighting in the slightly quirky, have recently commenced doing the same thing. I can recall watching a similar programme to Svarlbard on BBC 4 last Christmas when a film crew filmed an entire railway journey on The West Highland Line from Fort William to Mallaig, again with no commentary and it was just as soothing. That though, only lasted two hours.

We went down for breakfast at 6.30am and pre-armed with the information from Simon that all Norwegian hotels pride themselves on their extensive breakfast menus we were not disappointed with the Anker Hotel's efforts. It was superb with an extensive help yourself choice and we made the most of it. Remembering the prohibitive cost of food and drink in Norway and the fact we would be out in the forest for most of the day we made ourselves some 'ad hoc' sandwiches for later. In my case I chose cheese and smoked salmon on rye bread and very nice they were too.

Simon arrived at exactly eight and away we went to Maridalen to renew our search for a Great Grey Owl. The earlier start made all the difference as we had an instant and gratifying success on arriving at the site where we had left the owl last night. A Great Grey Owl was obviously visible to the two or three local birders already present at the roadside, one of whom was an intrepid lady in a motorised  wheelchair with a scope on a special mount. The owl was perched on top of what was left of a half felled silver birch trunk and closer to the road than yesterday. 

We watched as it swivelled its head almost 360 degrees back and fore, in a smooth motion, following sounds it could hear on the ground. Then it flew down on long broad wings to the ground but obviously was unsuccessful, as soon afterwards it flew up and landed even closer to us on another silver birch stump. This is what we had hoped for last night but Simon said he had seen them even closer than this. I for one was not complaining about the current situation and made the most of it with both camera and binoculars.

We watched the owl for around twenty minutes but then it flew towards the forest and we lost sight of it. Simon thought it had flown further into the forest and suggested we circle around to a clearing he knew of, as he suspected it had flown there.

We walked up the road, turned left into the forest and followed him along a narrow snowbound track through the pines and came to another area that had been partially felled. 

A Norwegian birder/photographer was already there and he silently motioned to us, pointing to a conifer trunk some twenty metres off the track and on which the Great Grey Owl was perched, a few metres up, on a tiny spur jutting from the trunk.

All our hopes and dreams had now most definitely come true and a surge of adrenalin and elation swept through me. We were unbelievably close to this magnificent owl and it showed not the slightest concern at our presence. In fact we were so close that on inspection of its eyes through binoculars you could see the left pupil was slightly larger than the right! We conversed in hushed almost reverential tones, wary of disturbing the owl but we need not have worried, for the owl certainly wasn't!

Stoically it faced away from us, looking out towards the clearing, as if in contemplation of something beyond our sensibilities. 

Judging by its size it was probably a female which are larger than the male. Huge and grey in the early morning light, its plumage tones changed subtly with the gradual strengthening of the light. 

It turned its head at intervals, like a gun turret swivelling on its axis, responding to the sounds of the forest. Like all owls it could turn its head to a remarkable degree, looking up at a passing raven or bird of prey, over its shoulder or down to the ground while all the while its body remained statuesque, sunk onto its perch, the loose feathers of its underparts entirely concealing the stub of broken branch it gripped with huge talons. 

Most memorable was when it directed its large dish like face towards us and with eyes that penetrated to your inner being, looked long and hard in our direction, a stare like no other, before, disdainfully and slowly, it would rotate its head to look away and resume its contemplation of who knows what in the distance of the forest. We were of no consequence in its world.

Looking at its distinctive profile side on, with that great brow formed by the top of its facial disk it looked almost prehistoric, and I felt a connection with something primal, an echo of early ancestors who must have regarded such a creature as something to be feared and bearing ill omen. Even to this day it is known in some parts as the Phantom of the Forest or Spectral Owl.

Initially, on first encountering the owl so very close to me, the inevitable adrenalin rush that surged through my veins brought great excitement even elation at this wonderful and unexpected opportunity but slowly an inner peace and calm descended on me, possibly on all of us, brought on by the owl, sitting so silent, so still and so tranquil as if it was the very soul of the forest.

We stood in admiration and in an unreciprocated communion with this 'phantom of the forest' as it sat aloof and immune to our comments, exchanged in excited whispers. A spell had been cast and I for one was well and truly under it and did not want to break it. 

The Great Grey Owl having a minor preen.Note the huge feathered foot and claws

I took stock of my situation. I was standing in a foreign snow bound forest, with sunlight slowly creeping up the sloping terrain and through the scattered pines towards the owl in its tree, although it would be some time before it reached the owl. A small stream rippled over stones in a dark gash of a ditch, separating me from the owl. All was well in my world.

Simon

The forest was very still as we stood quietly in the presence of this wonderful creature. A Nutcracker called and the inevitable crossbills and nuthatches briefly broke the silence but then  it would become quiet and still once more. 

A couple of photographers who had found us were restless, wanting the owl to fly in the hope they could get that particular flight shot they craved but for me that was an irrelevance. I was content to stand here and enjoy this experience for as long as it would last. I was going nowhere, aware this was probably going to be a unique event for me. Only if the owl flew off would I forsake this spot.

Peter and myself took selfies of each other with the owl in the backgrond. A trite souvenir which on reflection was not really in keeping with this communion with the owl. But everyone does it.

Peter and myself with 'that owl' in the background

Peter with the Great Grey Owl perched on the trunk above his head

For over an hour we stood and watched in almost silent reverence. The sun inexorably crept through the pines until its weak rays finally illuminated the perched owl in a lovely soft light.

Time had passed un-noticed but now Peter was becoming anxious, wanting to go and see the Northern Hawk Owls in the hope of getting a better picture of them than yesterday. I understood Peter's priorities but I was  determined to remain with the Great Grey Owl for as long as possible. This would never be repeated in my lifetime and I was not going to be the first to call an end to the experience.

Simon and Peter headed off, it having been agreed they were going to come back for me after seeing the hawk owls. However the Great Grey Owl made a decision for me by suddenly coming to life and, spreading its huge grey wings, floated effortlessly and soundlessly from its perch and across the clearing to land in a pine tree on the other side of the clearing although now more distant and obscured by branches. I called to the others to wait and joined them just as Simon found a Northern Treecreeper scuffling around at the base of a pine, looking for food.

Northern Treecreeper

We watched for a minute or so before it disappeared further into the forest.

It was eleven am and I sat in the back of Simon's 4x4 as if in a dream. Had what just passed really happened? Of course it had and I revelled in the moment. We arrived at Ringi Farm and this time a Northern Hawk Owl was perched on a tall spruce right by the road. Another was perched, like yesterday, on a distant spruce across the farm fields. Neither was eminently photographable due to the height they were perched at and the acute angle at which we were viewing them.

We decided to leave as we had one more bird we wanted to see and time was now against us. We had to hurry if we wished to fulfil our desire to renew our acquaintance with some Pine Grosbeaks. Most have moved on now from Norway but there was still one group left, feeding in a quiet suburban street in Oslo.

We headed into the city and then drove around an area of suburban apartments checking the whitebeam trees along the roads but with no luck. Simon found a local lady he knew who had been photographing the grosbeaks and she said she would call us if she found any. Literally minutes later she called to say she had found four feeding on berries in a tree. 

It was just around the corner from where we currently were and soon we were standing on a snow covered bank looking up into a whitebeam tree and watching four superb Pine Grosbeaks feeding on now very much withered and unappetising looking berries. However it was not the pulp the grosbeaks were after but the seeds within.

The group consisted of one rose pink adult male and three orange and grey immatures or females. They  scrambled acrobatically amongst the tree's bare branches like small parrots, creeping along and hanging off the thin twigs and stems of the tree to get at the berries. 

Adult male Pine Grosbeak

They were constantly active but then, as if on a pre determined signal, they all ascended higher in the tree calling to each other with soft conversational notes and sat quietly resting, occasionally preening before, after  some minutes, resuming their quest for berries. I remembered I had noticed this rather charming behaviour when we came to Oslo to see them in November last year.

One female or immature male flew down onto the snow covered grass, either drinking snow or looking for fallen berries and another took a drink from the guttering above the apartments. 

Immature male or female Pine Grosbeak

The male came very close to us as he fed in the tree and allowed us to admire his rose pink and grey plumage at point blank range.

They are such beautiful and charismatic birds and it was a delight to see them once more.

Simon said we really must go if we were to catch our flight and so another superb trip to 'The Lands of the North' came to its highly satisfactory conclusion.

So thank you Simon.


For those of you interested in going to see the owls and grosbeaks, Peter and myself flew from Stansted to Oslo's Gardemoen Airport direct on Ryanair at a cost of £62.00 return each. The flights take just under two hours and are such that you can do it in one day without staying overnight at a hotel but it is a risk we were not prepared to take.

We stayed at The Anker Hotel in Oslo, in a twin bedded room costing £75.00 per night including breakfast.

Simon can be contacted by email on  oslobirder@gmail.com or via Twitter @si-rix