Barn Owl

Sunday October 21. The foggy start caused Dave to be delayed, so I checked out the churchyard first. There were plenty of small birds zipping about, and through the mist I spotted my first Redwings of the autumn in hedgerow behind the church. I was joined by Dave at Netherstead, but it soon became apparent that the fog would be slow to lift. By the time we reached the flash we had managed to flush a couple of Snipe, see a Little Grebe, and gained the impression that there were more Reed Buntings, Chaffinches and Yellowhammers than last week. The flash produced a pair of Wigeon and a handful of Snipe, plus a Green Sandpiper and 19 Lapwings.

John rang to say he had arrived and was debating whether it was worth pressing on. We felt that the fog was showing signs of lifting, so fortunately he chose to continue. We had just reached Stapenhill Wood when Dave flushed a Barn Owl from the edge of the field. We watched it fly away along the rough field boundary while we bellowed to John, who we knew needed Barn Owl for the site. He appeared over the ridge as the bird landed. We scoped it, while I attempted some record shots, and then a record sketch of what I could see. Shortly afterwards a couple of dogwalkers appeared, and initially walked right past it without flushing it. Then they went back to encourage their dog to follow and their commotion caused the Owl to fly right towards us. It kept coming, I had my camera ready and eventually I pressed the shutter. Nothing happened. My camera had switched itself off. By the time it was back on, the Owl was a distant dot again. This is what it looked like though.


Barn Owl

We remained on the ridge watching little parties of Siskins, 10 in total, and gaining extra Redwings, 37 in total, before I spotted my second year tick of the day. A single Brambling flew past with Chaffinches. Unfortunately my directions were sufficiently naff that Dave failed to see it. My year total for the site is now 114, and the previous two year's totals of 118 and 117 are definitely in sight.