Now that winter has proceeded quite well already with cold temperatures all over the northern part of the continent, the Influx of Hawk Owls might been cancelled. In a blog in November, Bird-lens mentioned that there might be a good chance that twitchers of the north of Middle Europe can observe Hawk Owls (Surnia ulula) on their homegrounds. This should be not only true for Denmark but also at least for the northern part of Germany for this autumn/winter as there were very good numbers in Finland with 164 observations reported within 7 days It seemed that similar numbers were reported from Sweden. But up to now only 1 bird showed up in 2013. It is still present (at least until yesterday, 6th of February) in Porsmose near Næstved, Denmark. Porsmose is roughly 80 km south-west of the Danish capital Copenhagen.This individual has been seen at least since January 6th 2013 but was only the 2nd observation this winter in Denmark.
From time to time there are wintering birds far inland. Last time, a Northern Hawk-owl (Surnia ulula) could be seen in inland Germany was on February 13th 2011 near 1 Bad Vilbel, in the state of Hessen, north of Frankfurt.
To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds you can find in the western palearctic. Trips to remote places to capture images of rare birds of western palearctic were very successful. This nice image is only a first impression, what you will find in the gallery in the “Pictures Shop” very soon. Just give me a message, if I could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.