Uppland : An Owl Paradise
Uppland is a paradise for owls. If you go out into the forest in late winter, you can hear them hooting in the night. The best time to hear them is from late February to late March. But, they don’t hoot every night. Only owls know the perfect night for a concert…
The most common owls you'll hear are the tawny owl, the Boreal owl, the ural owl, and the Eurasian pygmy owl. The tawny owl will be found much closer to settlements than the other three. The Boreal owl might be hard to hear some years, and has unfortunately decreased in number lately. You can help the owls to find nesting places by building special birdhouses for them.
There are other owls you might see in Uppland, depending on the weather. If the weather is suitable, the snowy owl and the Northern hawk-owl can spend the winter here. The snowy owl builds its nest high up in the mountains, and the Northern hawk-owl builds its nest in mountain birch forests. In the autumn, some of these owls will fly southwards. Once in a while, you might also see the Great Grey Owl, the vagabond of Norrland’s forests. In Uppland, owls can pop up anywhere. In 2004, a Great Grey Owl was spotted in the City Forest (Stadsskogen)!
Photo: Wikimedia
Wikipedia article on owls