Going back to the scene

There is a Great Grey Owl in the area of Gothenburg now and it is not far from the Western Capercaillie and its scene. The Great Grey Owl is a rare sighting in Gothenburg and of course I have been looking for it. I had no luck finding anything on Tuesday so on Wednesday I had my girlfriend’s nephew Ivar with me in search of the Owl.

I had done a better research of the area for the Wednesday excursion and a pair of extra eyes is always good to have. It had been sighted along Ugglemossen, which roughly translated means Owls Bog.

We hike along the bog for an hour or more and sadly the only thing we found of any interest was a golf ball. We therefore decided to end the Owl search and headed instead to scene of the resident Western Capercaillie. It is just a couple of hundred meters from Ugglemossen so there was probably a good chance of getting some good photos if we found the bird.

I must admit that I almost had given up, but luck turned when Ivar shouted “It´s there” pointing at a place just 10 meters away.

It wasn´t in the best mood so we had to quickly back away. We stopped and took some photos, but it decided to follow us. We backed some more and it still came towards us. It was really grumpy even when we had 25-30 meters distance. We did this dance for 30 minutes before deciding to call it a day.

Ivar chattered all the way back to the car, a 2km walk, about the experience and the behavior of the bird. It is not uncommon to get this type of reaction when you trespass into a Western Capercaillie´s territory, but I am not at ease with it.

It was of course our fault and not the birds. It´s was only reacting to our presence. We were the visitors and therefore we had to behave nicely.