Black Audi Birding: Back to the Owls 16th December 2024

Tuesday, 17 December 2024

Back to the Owls 16th December 2024

Last Saturday I kept a promise to myself and revisited a certain place in The Cotswolds where I had been fortunate to see some Short eared Owls a week ago see here.

However I was disappointed to draw a blank as no owls were flying over their favourite fields.Talking to another birder I discovered that they had been seen earlier in the day but now at 1000am on a sunny morning there was no sign of them.Presumably they were hunkered down in the fields of coarse grass that serves as their winter home. I was further advised that they were unlikely to re-appear until mid afternoon.

I hung around for an hour or so harbouring a vague hope but my heart was not in it and I soon lost the will to persevere and left for home. However I vowed to return today, Monday and see if my luck would change.

Not having anything better to distract me I decided to make a day of it although aware the owls were unlikely to be around until mid afternoon. Short eared Owls are however unpredictable and I clung, totally unreasonably and without foundation, to the slim hope one or more might show themselves earlier.

Delayed by a minor problem at home I got there at 1030 and found that I was not alone in holding out hope that an owl might be up and about. Another fifteen cars were randomly scattered along the verges of the two lanes bordering the favoured fields but there was little sign of anyone, just empty cars.

I parked in my usual spot on the verge of the quieter of the two lanes and where it intersected with the other busier lane which appeared to be a link between two larger roads judging by the regular traffic passing along it.

Looking up that lane I could see one other photographer moving rapidly up the lane towards an owl flying around by a drystone wall that marked the far end of the field. I caught up with the unknown photographer and we made a five minute walk up the lane to the top end of the field, both of us fearing the obvious that the owl would have disappeared by the time we got there. All went well however as the owl stalled in mid air and pitched into the grass right by the lane, which at this time of the day was thankfully relatively quiet.

We walked as close as we dared to the owl as it stood in the grass.Had it caught a vole? Getting closer it looked like it had missed its intended victim but remained in the grass looking around for a minute or two. Owls when they fail like this always adopt a look of complete surprise on their face as if they can hardly believe the vole has escaped their clutches

Where did that vole go?

The owl took off and flew in a familiar buoyant flight to a nearby dry stone wall and posed beautifully on top of the wall in perfect sunlight. We both made the most of this unexpected and rare opportunity and took our pictures, quite a few in fact!

The owl remained on the wall for a few minutes and then took to the air only to be instantly mobbed by a Carrion Crow. It flew down the field parallel to the lane before dropping into the grass and that was it. I could not find it in the grass, even with my bins, as no doubt it had secreted itself behind a large tussock,well out of the cold wind .

Well, what an unexpected bonus that was and buoyed by this success we stood about waiting and hoping for more but as often happens no more owl action came our way. We walked down the lane and leaving my new found friend I turned right to walk along my favourite quieter lane, finding other photographers stood by another wall overlooking the fields.I hadn't the heart to tell them that they were in the wrong place and what they had missed but their presence explained the empty cars that I had noted earlier. I walked to the end of the lane and turned right again for a short stretch and then right once more onto a footpath that led across the top of the fields and eventually took me back to where I had first seen the owl. I discovered yet more photographers scanning the fields from the footpath as I passed along it.Sadly though, no owls were to be seen anywhere.

A Raven put in its customary appearance, announcing its presence by 'cronking' as it flew high over the fields and a flock of Rooks, scattered like black rags on the wind. Three Fieldfares, moving west, chackered in alarm high in the grey sky, the earlier sun now but a memory.

I walked back to my car and chatted some more to my photographer friend who told me he came here frequently, travelling all the way from Somerset and it transpired he was a mine of local knowledge and information. He told me he was on good terms with the local farmer who is sympathetic to the owls, has erected Barn Owl boxes and is paid to keep the fields free of chemicals, which means the voles thrive. He also told me that after I had left on Saturday the farmer had counted 64 cars here in the afternoon! This location is becoming ever more well known, some say notorious and I do not know why I keep it a secret as the genie is well out of the bottle, so if anyone wishes to know, it is near a village called Hawling. Google 'Owls and Hawling' and you will find all the information you require. I would not recommend visiting on weekends.

Disconcertingly the photographer told me a friend of his who came here on Sunday last had seen no owls at all despite staying all day. I was also informed that the owls are favouring the fields either side of the busier lane this year.It is information such as this that is crucial for success as before I had always assumed the quieter lane was the best location to see the owls.

After our chat I decided to go to my car and sit in the warm out of the wind as it had now become strong and it felt decidedly cold, the fields being at quite a high and exposed elevation.I wondered if the wind would deter the owls from flying.

The hours passed slowly as I listened to the radio in the car which was positioned so I was able to check the fields with my bins without having to leave the car. Three hours passed with not a sign of an owl and I was saying to myself as birders do in such situations

'Let's give it another half an hour Ewan and then go'

Or is just me that does this?

I noticed from noon onwards an increasing number of cars were arriving with birders/photographers and parking in the passing places along the busier narrow lane.Not a good idea in my opinion and by so doing generating plenty of potential to upset the locals.They could always park in the quieter lane and walk.It really is not that far just a few hundred metres,.

Two thirty arrived and I decided on no more half hour extensions, opting to make one final walk up and down the lane before heading for home. I had some nice images after all from this morning's lucky encounter. I got out of the car and casually checked the field to my right as I had done countless times before and there, at the top, as earlier this morning, was the distinctive profile of a flying Short eared Owl.

At last!

I hurried up the lane passing other owl enthusiasts who seemed not to have noticed the flying owl, being engrossed in looking over the field on the other side of the lane. I got to the top of the lane and stationed myself on the narrow verge, standing perilously close to the tarmac and fast moving passing cars but needs must.

The busy narrow lane, for the moment traffic free.The owls were hunting over
the fields either side and in some cases crossed the lane

Owls now seemed to be everywhere on either side of the lane, flying both near and distant over the fields.

Like giant moths they floated across the fields, every so often rising in the sky to conduct regular disputes with other owls, their harsh cries of displeasure at finding another of their kind encroaching on their airspace sounding loud and clearly in the cold air, two sometimes three regularly interacting, flying with supreme grace and speed, rising to aerobatically talon grapple with one another.

The owls not only had confrontations with their own kind but with kestrels and crows.The former in particular aggressively trying to mug any owl that had caught a vole. One kestrel right in front of me successfully attacked and locked talons with an owl which relinquished its vole prey and fled.I have seen kestrels do this to Barn Owls but never knew they would tackle these Short eared Owls.

A Kestrel in the act of stealing a vole from a Short eared Owl

For an unforgettable hour, that passed all too quickly, it was Short eared Owl mania before the light became too dull for photos.The owls continued their hunting and foregoing the camera I watched, enthralled through my bins, as up to six Short eared Owls quartered the fields.