Barn and Short Eared Owls in the Cotswolds

       

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 I had a lovely bistro lunch with my gorgeous elder daughter Louisa in Witney yesterday. On the way home I decided to try and see the above Owls at a well-known Cotswold  hilltop spot. I used to go to this spot every year but stopped going 5 years ago when it became very popular and, at times I’m afraid, a bit of a circus. I know its been very busy there again this winter but I hoped that, as it is quite late in the season, it might be a bit quieter. I was pleasantly surprised to find just a couple of friendly and well behaved birders present when I arrived. Encouragingly, there were also four Short Eared Owls flying over the fields, all be it a little distantly.

 

The Short Eared Owl is a grass land specialist with an almost world-wide range. It is found on all continents except Antarctica and Australia and hence has one of the most widespread distributions of any bird. It is an attractive grey and sandy coloured bird with very noticeable bright yellow eyes. It is strongly dependent on the population of its primary food, rodents, and will wander nomadically in search of them in years when they are in short supply. 

 

At this particular spot I believe that voles are their main prey. Let’s guess that a Short Eared Owl needs a minimum of 4 voles a day to remain healthy. That means that for the 4 winter months that they are present at this site the 4 owls I saw will need to catch a rather staggering 2,000 voles! I couldn’t find out what the average density of voles per square meter is on good grassland to see what hunting range this would correspond to but I guess it’s no surprise that an area can get hunted out. I think this happens at this Cotswold spot as there are some winters when there are no Owls there at all but, touch wood, they always seem to eventually come back, presumably when the vole population recovers.

 

The  Owls here are viewed from a small road looking over a typical Cotswold style dry stone wall into a field of short grass. I’m told the farmer maintains these fields in this manner specifically for the Owls so hats off to him or her!! On previous visits I have been treated to superb views but this time they really kept their distance. I was chatting to one of the other guys there who visits the site regularly and he told me that they had tended to be more distant this year and he thought this was because of the disturbance from so many visitors. I’m not sure if this was true but it certainly seemed plausible.

 

Here is a typical distant view I had on this visit ….

 

….compared to better views I’ve had here in the past.

  

 

The same chap kindly pointed out a Barn Owl distantly perched in a tree. I kept an eye on it while hoping the SEO’s would come close and it soon flew right in front of me dropping to the ground several times but never appearing to catch anything. The element of surprise in a hunting Barn Owl is largely due to the  fact that they are completely silent in flight.  A good few years back this was amply demonstrated to me at a falconry. The trainer had a Barn Owl on his glove perhaps 100 meters away from me and I had some chicken held in my gloved hand. The falconer told me to close my eyes while the Owl flew to me. The approaching Owl was rather spookily completely silent, the first I knew that it was on its way was when it landed on my hand! It has a special adaption to its feathers to facilitate this but it only works when they are dry meaning that they struggle to catch prey in wet weather. 

  

     

I know I’m very biased but this Barn Owl was a truly stunning bird, the tawny speckling on its flight feathers appearing almost  iridescent compared to  its  white typically flat owl face and underparts. Watching it twist, turn and  tumble to the ground so close to me was a mesmerising experience and I felt truly privileged to have witnessed it.

 

What a perfect day!

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!