Oh deer a shortage of Shorties

The Safari headed out mid-morning to the site where a couple of Short Eared Owls have been hanging around for a while now. It might have seemed like a strange time to go owling but they were seen yesterday at lunchtime so after a night of rain we thought they might be hungry and up and about at that time again.

It was a mild enough morning as we wandered up and down the tracks keeping an eye on the rough ground either side. Two Buzzards called noisily to each other and then gave us a short display flight.From the pasture beyond the far end of the rough we could hear a Curlew exersizing its vocal calls but not quite doing the full bubbling call; one of the best sounds in nature anywhere in the world IOHO. A flock of six was seen to briefly rise above the trees possibly flushed by the Buzzards. 

Meanwhile a few Skylarks went over calling but we didn't hear any song form them - ditto about  their sound!

A mooch round a bit of a wet area flushed two Snipe and a little later we had a flight of 12, then another, so a max of 15 or a total of 12? Splashing sounds from a small patch of open water here gave us several amorous Frogs some of which had contributed to the rather large blog of spawn in the middle of the pond, our first spawn of the year.

Leaving the little boggy patch we noticed the dark tipped ears of a Brown Hare as it slunk away unsuccessfully trying to remain unnoticed - think Frank smelt it too as his nose was twitching in that direction.

We had another wander up and down the banks of the dyke hoping that the Shorties would show themselves but it was to no avail and as the wind was picking up and  spots of rain were in the air we decided that any self-respecting owl would now be staying cosy in its roost...time for some lunch.

It just so happened that our route back to Base Camp took us past the Hooded Crow site so we stopped for another look - nothing again! But we did call in at the farmland birds feeding site round the corner. Here it started raining quite heavily but we had a decent numbers of crows to work through - nothing :-( and two distant Buzzards sat on adjacent posts along a fence-line. To our right near the farmyard a Song Thrush sang and in our bins we picked up a singing Skylark hovering over a distant field, we could just about hear its song with strained ears as the wind was blowing the sound away from us.

Scanning through the corvids we saw a group of four Roe Deer appear from behind a hedge and start grazing in the open on the stubble field about 500 yards away. Brown Hare and Roe Deer were only added to the year list yesterday and then both seen again today - almost weird?

Carefully we went back to the Land Rover for the camera and took the following pics - not the world's best of Roe Deer but at that range in the rain they ain't too bad!

Did you spot the Magpie?

Shame the Carrion Crow in the top corner wasn't the Hoodie

Also seen today were the first Blackthorn flowers of the year and the first fresh green shoots covering a roadside Hawthorn. 
Where to next? The Common Scoter-fest that is Patch 2 beckons tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know what's putting in appearances on consecutive days in your outback.