Thursday 27 October 2011

Owl Town

At last the wind has died down a bit, only 25mph today as opposed to 45 yesterday. After noticing that the Great Tit was in the garden and flushing a Long-eared Owl out of the honeysuckle hedge, I set off around the patch. As soon as I got over the fence 6 Short-eared Owls came out of the field by the house, followed shortly afterwards by a Little Auk out from Scord Beach, and then the 'bastard bird' of the autumn - a locustella kicked up 3 times from the dunes by Scord, before it just disappeared into the marram grass, despite extensive tramping and thrashing the grasses with a stick, the bird was never seen again. Around the Old Scatness dig another 2 Short-eared Owls were put up, and anothe 3 came in off the sea down at the south end of Scatness - making 11 in total for the day ! Elsewhere around the patch were - 120 Barnacle Geese, a Robin, a Blackcap and a late Wheatear.





Short-eared Owls - inc a couple coming in off the sea


Great Tit



Barnacle Geese

2 comments:

pim wolf said...

Hi Steve,

finding a locustella and not being able to clinch it must be one of the worst experiences any birder can have. Your thanks for owning up? 0 comments...

We have just sent a Long-tailed Shrike your way, when you are finished with it, send it back please.

rgrds, pim wolf

Unknown said...

that's the way it goes sometimes, not all birds are showy, frustrating I know, but I've found Lancy in the past on my patch , so I can live with it !