A MORNING WITH THE BARN OWLS

A spent a couple of hours with the barn owls near Crosby . One was hunting some distance away but was beautifully back lit against the dark background

A Day on the coast

I recently spent a day down on the coast in north Wales . I went to see the Little terns but there were also alot of Ringed Plovers, Dunlin ,stonechats including juveniles and lots of bees on the sea Holly . I have also found a stunning Tawny Owl living in a hollow of an old tree . Every since childhood they have been one of my favourite birds

Little Terns

Ringed Plovers

Bees on sea Holly

Juvenile Stonechat

Male Stonechat

Tawny Owl

A YEAR OF SUNRISES

Last year I decided to record the sunrises from our bedroom window throughout the year . There were some spectacular colours

STORY OF OUR BARN OWLS

Over the past four years we have been so lucky to have had two adult barn owls close to our home . We have been able to watch their lives unfold from the comfort of our house , monitoring their behaviour to the extent that I now know their mannerisms , their calls , what they mean, the patterns throughout the year and how their hunting area changes from season to season

Unlike some barn owls , they don’t tend to come out before it is too dark to photograph them except when the female is on eggs or when there are young but for me just to be able to observe them is a real pleasure . I have so many photos of their young over this period and it has been both inspiring and demoralising to watch their early lives before they have fledged each year , sometimes the adults have had one clutch and other years two . It is so important not to disturb owls so I am very fortunate that I can observe from a good distance

One year I was able to watch four female owlets for a couple of weeks in the field nearby and then to my amazement see two of them visit our garden for a few days and even sit outside our bedroom window on one occasion. I watch as they take their first steps outside the box and the early tentative attempts at flying, often crashing into a hedge or falling onto the ground , playing games under the hedge and pouncing on things in the grass . The beauty of these lovely birds never ceases to amaze me and I look forward each year to see what these two incredible birds produce .

This year we have two owlets , although at this stage I am not sure what sex they are .

Last night I had the most memorable experience to date . I opened our bedroom window just before dusk so I could listen to the owlets and wait for the adults to return . I was leaning out of the window and after about 15 minutes I saw something out of the corner of my eye and a thud . The female had landed on the top of the open window no more than two feet away from my head . I don’t know who was the most shocked me or the bird but I jumped back as a natural reaction and the owl sadly flew off . Strangely instead of flying away it circled that end of the house before landing on the fence nearby . I am not sure if the opening had attracted the bird or there was another reason for the bird to land on the window but it certainly caused my heart to beat a little faster for a few minutes .

SCOTTISH TRIP

Welcome to the first blog on my new website

Last weekend I decided to make the long journey up to the west coast of Scotland to Scottish Photography hides , run by Alan Mcfayden as I had heard about a tawny owl that had been out feeding during the day . It had started appearing during the long wet spell we had in May because it was obviously struggling to feed it’s young and had continued to visit near to a hide, even pushing out the resident sparrowhawk . 

My love of tawnies goes back to childhood and I felt I couldn’t miss the oppurtunity to go and see it . The trip up took 6 hours compared to the normal 3 1/2 due to people visiting the Lakes and sadly I came home after the first day instead of staying for two as originally planned as I hadn’t felt very well whilst I was there but there was an abundance of wildlife that made the trip very worthwhile . 

Tawny owls are nocturnal and so it is very unusual to see them out during daylight except when they have young but even then they tend to be asleep in trees rather than looking for food. We also had a visit from a Sparrowhawk , Siskin , Red Squirel , Roe deer, Cuckoo, Great spotted woodpecker , Jay  and a first for me a Lesser Redpoll which was a really beautiful bird . Sometimes we forget how stunning the small birds can be . 

I have always preferred to find the wildlife myself but occasionally when something like this happens I feel it is worth trying to get to see it as you are never sure if you will see it again