The Boys are Back in Town!

Short-eared Owl

I paid a visit to the lovely Forest of Dean today where I was looking for Crossbill and Hawfinch. It was very quiet indeed, the closest I came to seeing either of my hoped for species was a distant calling Crossbill which I could not locate near the church at Parkend.

On the way home I called into Gloucestershire’s worst kept secret birding location to look for Short Eared Owls. I normally go to this location two or three times during the winter and have been blessed on occasion with some fantastic views of these stunning owls.

This was my first visit this winter and it was great to see that at least three owls have returned. They came out just as the sun was setting, rather too late for any quality photography on this occasion so I spent most of the time just enjoying watching them. I found it almost mesmerising watching the interaction, calling and hunting of the owls in the last embers of the day.

It’s a testament to the ability of modern cameras that it is possible to get some sort of image in such poor light. The photos attached were taken fifteen minutes of so after sunset in deep twilight. The above picture was taken at ISO 8,000 and that below at an incredible ISO 16,000! In between I took a picture of the sunset to give a measure of how poor the light really was.

Short-eared Owl

Comments

Albert the Albatross

What is more improbable - a) England’ football team beating Germany in the knockout stages of a major competition b) Seeing an Albatross in England Actually the answer is a) because it has not happened since 1966 rather than b) as Albert the Albatross, as he is affectionally known, has made a number of passing visits to the UK since 1967! On Monday evening reports started to emerge of Albert associating with the Gannet colony at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, almost one year after his last brief visit to the same site. During the intervening period there have been a number of sightings of Albert across Europe, particularly from the Baltic Sea where he appears to have spent much of the last 12 months. In fact there were reports that he had been attacked and killed in the area by two eagles. Reports of his death were clearly greatly exaggerated! The Black-browed Albatross is ci...

The Hawfinches of the Forest of Dean

Hawfinch - Forest of Dean, winter 2017 A highlight of my winter birding is my annual trip to the Forest of Dean to see Hawfinches. I was unable to go last year due to the post-Christmas lockdown so this year’s visit was even more richly anticipated than normal. Parkend in the Forest of Dean is my usual chosen location for watching Hawfinches. Here the proven technique of using your car as a hide normally works well. I must also say that, after a number of quite strenuous twitches recently, I was also looking forward to a much more leisurely birding session! The story of Hawfinches in the UK is, to my mind at least, a fascinating one. It is what is known as an eruptive species meaning that it occasionally erupts from its traditional breeding grounds to invade on mass countries much further away. This is thought to be driven by a combination of breeding success and local crop failure resulting in not enough food to go around. Records indi...

Perseverance or sheer stupidly? – The Belted Kingfisher nailed at the 4th attempt!

Belted Kingfisher I have had three failed attempts, or dips as birders call them, to see the Lancashire Belted Kingfisher over the last few weeks, including two harrowing encounters with the slope of death, see here . So when the bird was relocated a few miles away from its original location in an altogether less challenging spot I was soon off on my 4 th attempt to see this truly stunning mega rare vagrant from North America. We had friends from the village coming to dinner on Wednesday night so I really didn’t fancy a strength sapping silly o’clock departure. I hence left home at 07:00 on Wednesday morning and heading north again up the car park previously known as the M6. The Kingfisher had relocated close to Samlesbury at a place called Roach Bridge on the river Darwen. I arrived at 09:30, found a parking spot very close to the bridge, and set off along a muddy footpath towards the reported location. Disconcerti...

The Standlake Birder

Search This Blog