- Firstly, may I wish anyone reading this blog a very happy new year. Personally speaking, I am keen to forget 2010 and Anna and I are relieved we have a fresh year to start - last year was not a great one for various reasons.
- Yesterday morning, Mr.T and I went for a dawn ramble at our local site - no sign of our barn owl(s) again but two other VERY unexpected visitors made themselves apparent - two female goosander on the weir pool at Southcote lock (on the kennet).
- Now Goosander aren't particularly rare -they breed on upland rivers and overwinter down here in numbers - but generally on large inland lakes / reservoirs or large rivers.
- I'd never have expected to see them on a tiny sluice pool on a river I can virtually jump across - another new visitor to our patch - lovely to see.
- Today I went for a drive at dawn, to check on my short-eared owls - and managed to see eight I think - so they're doing well. (apologies for the bad "in-flight" photo!)
- I ascertained which of the bare trees they like to perch in, picked up three short-eared owl pellets from under the tree (they can go to Anna's biology dept) as proof and made my merry way home. I may still get a chance to take a few nice close-up photos of these beautiful owls this winter, now that I know which tree they hang out in... I have a very limited timescale though!
- There was a lovely surprise for me as I parked near the short-eared owl spot this morning at dawn. On parking, I noticed a huge white feathery, ghostly moth 30 yards to my left and knew immediately what I'd seen - a quartering barn owl!
- I didn't even have time to take the camera (or binoculars - not that I needed them!) out of the back of the car - as I got out of the car the owl continued to hunt all around the parking spot - at one point she (I was so close I could tell it was a female (no rudeness please - female barn owls tend to have a more speckly breast than males)) virtually flew into me -such was her concentration whilst hunting.
- What a treat -the best view of a barn owl hunting I've ever had - I even saw her catch a vole!
- Maybe next week Mr.T and I will go back to see all our owls!
(Thanks to Shirl, for the super photo of a female goosander, in its more usual territory - on the Tay!)
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