Duck scaring in Gloucestershire and an absence of owls.

21st to 25th Feb 

I had a few days visiting family in north Wiltshire and Oxford but I got out with the camera when the opportunity arose. The weather was generally grey with some rain and a few sunny spells, so not that good for photography. It is difficult to decide where best to go when you have limited time, one place on my 'to do' list was visit Blakehill Farm nature reserve just outside Cricklade for another chance at the Short-eared owls, I'd been there in January but only saw one owl at a great distance. They were best attempted in late afternoon according to the reports of sightings, so for the daytime I decided to revisit my usual haunts in the Cotswold Water Park, Gloucestershire, a series of lakes and lagoons, mainly disused gravel pits. With over 150 bodies of water in 40 square miles of countryside it is still difficult to decide where to go.

As I mentioned above, I'd been there in January and at that time there were reports of at least 4 Smew in one of the gravel pits, I'd found them but they were so timid they flew off the moment they saw me which I hadn't expected - nor had the chap who'd been hiding on the bank for 4 hours waiting for them to come closer - I didn't know he was there until I'd scared off the ducks and he emerged from the undergrowth. [I later discovered he was someone who I was following on Flickr - sorry Dave!]

So, armed with the knowledge that the Smew were timid, I returned to the same lake to see if they were still there. As I drove along the road running alongside the lake I saw them on the far side. I parked and walked back along the road hoping for a view through the hedge, I did get a view and a photo, see below :-

I couldn't believe it, even from that distance the Smew saw me and flew off the moment I got to the gap in the hedge. Rather miffed by my failure I headed off to Coke's Pit, a nature reserve further along the road. This had a few more birds on but unfortunately the path around the lake is right on the waters edge for much of it so anything within camera range soon moved away. I did sneak up on a Great-crested grebe for a couple of shots.

Assuming you haven't scared everything away, there is a hide around the side of the lake, things were a bit distant but a Red-crested pochard swam just into camera range, and I spotted two male and one female Goosanders on the far side of the lake, far too distant for anything other than an ID shot unfortunately.

A pair of Great-crested grebe were performing their courtship display on the far side of the lake which was great to watch but difficult to photograph in the fast failing light, and a raft of Tufted duck drifted past just out of range.

As the light was getting bad and rain threatened I decided to head back to the car. I noticed that the path continued around the back of the lake in the direction of the Goosanders, it was worth the few hundred meters to get nearer, but just like the Smew, once I was in view of the Goosanders, they departed very quickly.

The rain soon set in and that was that for the day, I'd have to hope for a decent afternoon for the Short-eared owls during my remaining time there.

24th Feb was a lovely sunny day for the most part and a trip out gave me a missed opportunity for some good shots of Buzzards. I'd not seen this before, there were four or possibly 5 Buzzards together with lots of BH Gulls following a tractor ploughing a field.. The Buzzards were landing behind the plough and presumably collecting worms or other invertebrates,  as the tractor turned the whole mass of birds would take to the air and settle again once the tractor had moved on, the gulls were braver than the Buzzards so they were nearer the plough.

It's a terrible photo (they all are!) but there are 4 if not 5 buzzards here, I can't decide on the one flying in, top left.

I returned to a church in the village of Clanfield, Oxfordshire, where last year at about the same time of the year I had seen several Bullfinches.. I was in luck, two males and a female were on the grass in the churchyard feeding on Sycamore seeds as they had been last year. I was very fortunate as there was a low wall that I could hide behind to take some shots.

Very satisfied with my shots of Bullfinches I was confident of seeing the Short-eared owls, the sky had cleared completely and it was a lovely late afternoon as I headed the short distance to Blakehill Farm. I walked from the car park to the viewing point, it was bright and sunny but bitterly cold on the exposed former airfield which is the reserve. I met up with someone who'd seen the owls previously and he to was confident of some good sightings. According to the chalk board there had been 7 seen recently (unless someone was just having a laugh). As the sun dipped below the horizon some one and a half hours after my arrival, all we saw was a Kestrel and a couple of foxes. There were three of us hoping for an owl and none of us wanted to be the first to leave but in the end we admitted defeat and headed back to the relative warmth of our cars.