SHORTIES IN THE COTSWOLDS

There's been a lot of Short Eared Owl pictures posted on social media lately. It's an Owl mostly seen in Winter as in this season the numbers swell as birds come in from Scandinavia to boost our numbers in the UK to an estimated 10,000 individuals.

So myself and my partner in crime Steve Bool decided that we'll take a trip out to see if we could see them. Steve found out through a trusted contact that the birds were showing really well at a site in the Cotswold's so at 7am on a freezing cold morning we set out with Steve obviously doing the driving.

When we arrived there were cars parked all up this country lane with birders walking around and searching for the Owls. Either side of this country lane was rough grassland which the farmer (god bless him) keeps rough throughout the year so to attract rodents especially voles which the Short Eared Owls prey on.

We talked to a few birders some who had been at the site since dawn. They told us that the Owls had showed at first light but none had been seen since. It was bitterly cold so we walked about to try to keep warm, there were some other birds of prey there Red Kites were gliding around the fields we saw Buzzards as well as plenty of Kestrels.

kestrel

kestrel at rest

After waiting for about four hours for the birds to show in freezing temperatures  a shout went up as a Shortie came from nowhere and started to hunt along the fields at last we thought, as it went over both fields giving the birders there a good chance of getting great views and some photographs.

short eared owl

I think this was my best pic

 Only one bird was on view but it did put on a bit of a show

The Owl after hunting for a while went to ground, Steve picked it up in his scope and it gave us some great views of the bird at rest. This is the best I could manage with my camera, it was so difficult to pick up amongst the tufts of grass.

shortie hiding amongst the tufts of grass

It stayed there for an hour and as there were no other birds hunting and it was freezing cold we decided to head back home. We were both very happy though that we had seen a Short Eared Owl and as a bonus we drove past a field that must have had 30 or more Red Legged Partridge in so Steve parked up and I took some pics.

red legged partridge

When we got back we heard that five Shorties had turned up half an hour after we left, you couldn't write it, but at least we saw one. Imagine how gutted we would have been driving all the way there in the freezing weather and seen nothing! perish the thought.