17 January 2015: Short Eared Owls at Hawling.

A couple of hours spare on a sunny afternoon - only one place to get to - Hawling to watch the owls.
A Roe Deer resting under the trees where the Barn Owl perches.

First sighting of a Short Eared Owl

this time being buzzed by a Kestrel

Back on the hunt

On the ground looking for voles and where the noise is coming from.

A single fly by from the Barn Owl.

14 January 2015: Coombe Hill Meadows and then Hawling in the snow.

Spent a couple of hours down the local reserve at Coombe Hill Meadows. The paths alongside the canal were very wet and muddy, requiring wellies rather than just boots, especially as the boardwalk to the Grundon hide is under about 10 inches of water. Many of the meadows are flooded so there is no dry land anywhere near the hide. There are thousands of ducks, geese, Lapwing etc there but all a long way off. There was also nothing about to put the birds up occasionally - no horse riders, dog walkers, joggers or even birds of prey - so it was essentially very quiet for photography.  However,  the return journey yielded a few hedgerow birds.
Wigeon and Teal

Wigeon and Canada Geese

Wigeon

Wigeon and Pintail

Wigeon

Male Bullfinch

Song Thrush

Mistle Thrush

After lunch I decided that I would go back to Hawling for the Owls. I had originally thought I might leave the owls alone for a while, but the tempttion of owls in the snow was just too much. When I got there the wind had increased in strength and coldness and was blowing out of the South West - the kind of wind that usually akes theShort Eared Owls appear later, sometimes even near dark. However, I soon found that the Barn Owl was not bothered by the conditions.

 The Barn Owl caught 3 voles while I was there and as I left he was still perched ready to hunt for more.

I left at 1615 and no Short Eared owls had shown by I left - whether it was the wind, the snow or a combination of both I don't know. There were only a couple of other people there and I haven't heard whether they showed even later or not.

13 January 2015: A day of two halves!

It was a beautiful sunny morning and I had the whole day ahead of me so I decided to go to the Forest of Dean. I hadn't been there for a while and there were a few birds I hoped to catch up with. By the time I got to the Forest the day had already started to turn grey, in spite of the forecast. I reached Parkend and checked for the Hawfinch - they were there at the top of the tall trees by the cricket pitch so I set up the tripod and camera and took a few pictures. As I started the pictures it started to drizzle and after about 10 shots it started to rain heavily. I ubpacked and got back in the car and waited a while, but the rain had clearly set in so I headed home. These are the few Hawfinch pictures I managed in that space of time.

I hoped that the weather might improve as I left the Forest, but it doidn't stop raining until I had reached home. Even then it look threatening and did rain on and off for a while. At about 1330 the weather broke and rather surprisingly the sun came out. This left a short window of opportunity and given that the wind had dropped it seemed that there was a good chance that the Short Eared Owls at Hawling might come out early. Sure enough the first one appeared about 1430.

A Barn Owl also showed in the distance but I wanted to concentrate on the Shorties today.

There were at least 4 present and they were putting on quite a good show.

 

One of the Owls landed in the grass and spent quite a while rooring about and then looking about.

Suddenly when he raised his head this time he had a vole. He still kept looking about warily, you could see that he could hear the camera shutter,

and eventually he flew off about 20 feet

to settle and et his prey. When he left here he had no vole in his talons. This was the first time I had seen an Owl with a vole on the ground before and certainly the best shots I have taken of a Shortie flying off with one.

As usual there was a lot of inteaction whenever they came across each other while hunting.

and when they are in the mood even the Ravens get chased.