Tuesday 27 April 2010

A warm sunny windless day today, well, that is until I left work, when it clouded over and the wind got up! It remained warm and quite muggy for my walk though, which was the same trek as yesterday - over to the lakeside scrub to see if any Garden Warblers had turned up. As I passed through the small holding to get to the lake, I was sure I heard the sound of a Sedge Warbler, just a short burst, but as I stopped by the patch of bramble to wait and listen, a bloody jumbo jet went over slow and loud, one of those ones that seems to take an age to go over :-) After that, I neither heard or saw anything from the brambles, Sedge warbler would have been a good spring species to get for the year list!

When I arrived at the lakeside scrub, the whole place seemed subdued, certainly not so much singing as was heard yesterday. A couple of half hearted BLACKCAPS and CHIFFCHAFFS, the odd DUNNOCK and the CUCKOO now and again, were all that was heard on first arriving. I sat for half an hour and listened and watched, but all that was added was a TREECREEPER, NUTHATCH and GOLDCREST, also a KESTREL that was hunting over the scrub, I thought latter was responsible for the quitness of the area.

I decided to have a walk round, and maybe meet a Garden warbler by chance, or something else, well I did meet something else, a TAWNY OWL. It was sat up in a tree, barely concealed at all, now I know why it was so quiet around the place!

After taking a few snaps of the Owl, I quietly moved off and left it in peace, then headed for Migrant Alley. Here it was much the same as yesterday, ROOKS, JACKDAWS, CARRION CROWS, PIED WAGTAILS and a flock of 23 LINNETS. Two SKYLARKS rose up from the pasture and sang as they spiralled up and out of sight, and GREY HERON flew over - just like yesterday. Both SPARROWHAWK and another Kestrel were hunting over the paddocks, to the concern of the dozen or so SWALLOWS, which kept mobbing them.

Once again a bog standard walk ( apart from the Owl). I think i'll take an evening stroll out tonight, see if something different is happenning.

Below are a few Tawny Owl photo's. The last photo is looking south across the newly seeded 'pub' field.








16 comments:

ShySongbird said...

Lovely Tawny Owl photos Warren, I would be thrilled to get those.

Phil said...

Great Tawny shots Warren. I've just been looking at your year list and you have a lot of fantastic birds on there. I'd like to see a lot of them on my list!

Fraser Simpson said...

Very nice Tawny shots Warren. Looks very alert to your presence.

Greenie said...

Warren ,
Great shots of the Tawny Owl , as you say , unusual to see it out in the open .

Sharon said...

Lovely photos of the Tawny Owl Warren - you have no idea how jealous I am!!

Nic Squirrell said...

You always take such great photos, and I really like today's owl shots.

Phil and Mandy said...

they are fantastic Owl photos mate, well done.

Chris said...

OK, now look, next time just, send me a sms when you publish so nice pictures of the tawny owl man... I almost fall from my chair!!! I just even forgot the content of your message! Well these shots are gorgeous!!! And I love how it looked at you ;-)

Anonymous said...

Nice one Warren. Why oh why can`t i find a "in the open" Tawny.
I`m not envious. Honest!!!!

gypsyrose said...

lovely photo of the owl I would love to see one in the wild, went for a walk in the woods today and all I saw was a wood pigeon and a sparrow.

Ken. said...

Warren.
I do envy you being able to get that close to getting shots of that wonderful Tawny. They are a great Owl.
Well done Warren. 10/10

Monika said...

I have to echo everyone else and say fantastic owl photos. What am I seeing on the owl's back that is yellowish?

Steve said...

Brilliant Tawny Owl shots. Well done.

Jann said...

Awesome luck w/ the nice owl shots, boy they really elude me!

Wai Yien said...

Nice close up, Owls is always one of my favorite.

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Warren: That was a beautiful owl capture.