Thursday 24 January 2013

Short-eared Owls Baby!

I was traversing Nafferton Carrs this afternoon thinking what a waste of time it was - I could have just booted it down the road to Wansford Carrs which are the place to be at the moment, when I noticed 2 owls hunting over a shooting crop half a mile south of me. 2 Short-eared Owls. Booooom!!! The locale looks good for them but I hadn't thought that they were likely as I have never seen or heard of any here. The threat of extra raptors encourages me to keep crossing the carrs and boy am I glad I did. Here are pics of both owls, the first towering off south mobbed by crows after the other had chased it off and the second bird just about to land back in the crop.

Bird 1
Bird 2
Down on Wansford Carrs there wasnt a great deal to shout about, 130ish Lapwing, 14 Redshank but not much else. I wandered along the Wansford Canal for a bit picking up a female Siskin and a tight flock of 12 Tufted Duck flying along the river to the south. These were followed about a minute later by a single drake Shoveler which was flying east and provided me with my second unexpected Foot It tick of the afternoon. I am now up to 75/78 or 96%. 3 to go.

Just to prove I can work my camera

2 comments:

northernloon said...

Wonder if they came over the sea with the snow

James said...

I'm inclined to think they were just pushed off the hills above with the weather but who knows really

How birds and brains become mutually exclusive

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