Owl's that

The Safari hasn't been out much due to worrying family stuff and some good family stuff. The good stuff happened on Sunday and on Monday we were able to have a morning out with LCV and young H down on the nature reserve.

As soon as we arrived we happened across several Goldcrests. As we walked down the track we had a good look at a Great Spotted Woodpecker high in the tallest trees over by the golf course.

A look across the mere didn't give us any nearby ducks for H to study and learn, there was just a juvenile Mute Swan and that swam away from us. Down on the embankment we met up with FB who was listening and looking for the Bearded Tits that had been seen less than an hour earlier. Eventually LCV heard then caught sight of two of them very briefly - we were away down the track looking the wrong way. We did see the pair of Stonechats and managed just one pic.

The pair were together performing well at the top of an isolated Hawthorn bush but sadly they were on the wrong side of the light and they flew off while we tried to sneak round the other side, the swines!
Dinner time approached so we left the invisible, silent Bearded Tits to their reedbed and the noisy Cetti's Warbler to it's ditch but didn't get far before a Short Eared Owl (MMLNR #100) appeared over the tree tops the Great Spotted Woodpecker was in. It didn't quite come close enough but did fly round over the water upsetting the gulls giving us all great views.

Both pics are heavily cropped and processed so they they do actually look a bit like an owl

These used to be the default owl at the nature reserve until the golf course destroyed their open rough grassland habitat. now the golf course tree and shrub planting has matured the default owl are  the Long Eared Owls and it's almost time to go to look for them once the trees have lost their leaves. Some of the planted trees are now so large that a Tawny Owl is occasionally seen although not by us...yet! 

After chomping our butties we headed off to another site but a phone call from Wifey had us responding to yet another family emergency almost before we got a chance to lift our bins and that was the end of our safari for the rest of the day.

Where to next? More Patch 2 tomorrow, we will strike lucky one day; will it be in the morning?


In the meantime let us know who came as an unexpected visitor in your outback.