Owl encounter

There's not been much to talk about recently, Sandwich Bay has been the most productive, the Scrape has had good numbers of ducks over the last few days and I did get a Wheatear, one of the first to arrive this year. Also my first ever Firecrest, in the Elms at the Bay, more a record shot but as it was my first I was pleased to have seen and photographed it.

Today, 25th March, the weather was supposed to deteriorate to rain by the afternoon so I went out in the morning more in hope of something interesting than expectation. I visited the Scrape but it was surprisingly quiet, a few Shoveler over the back and an occasional Coot or Little grebe swimming by, but very little to point the camera at. I walked along to where the Wheatear had been on Monday but no sign. I walked back to the Elms for another go at the Goldcrest and Firecrests I'd seen on Monday, they were nowhere to be found. In fact I hardly took a photo really, certainly nothing worth keeping. I returned home for my lunch rather disappointed with how little I'd seen.

As it turned out, the weather didn't deteriorate, in fact it was marginally more sunny in the afternoon than perhaps it had been in the morning. I decided to go out again and ended up back at the Scrape having convinced myself something might drop in if I was lucky. Well, it was 'busier' than it had been in the morning, one Goosander had returned and things were nearer to the hide than they had been in the morning.

A Little grebe spent quite a bit of time fishing in front of the hide, and lovely specimens of both male Gadwall and Shoveler came in very close.

Little grebe

Male Gadwall

Male Shoveler

Something caused the ducks on the bank to enter the water and a couple of seconds later a 'ringtail' Hen harrier flew around the left hand side and back edge of the Scrape before disappearing over the bund towards the Elms, everything quickly settled down again. I took two shots but both are hopelessly out of focus - it is just possible to see the white rump on both images but not worth the space to post here. One other bird that made frequent appearances but I have found difficult to photograph was the Moorhen. Rather like photographing a Coot, the overall dark feathers are difficult to get any detail in without blowing out the paler colours in the bird. The one below was one of my better efforts.

Finally, on to the Short-eared owls. I left the Scrape hide at just after 4:00 pm and drove up to Dickson's Corner (I was intending to sit in the car and wait and also to warm up, the temperature had dropped anyway in the NE wind and now the sun was behind cloud it was positively chilly). As I pulled over into the small lay-by where the pile of road chippings are being stored, I spotted something on one of the metal posts the other side of the Ancient Highway, it was a Short-eared owl {SEO from now on]. I couldn't believe my luck but it was a bit distant and there was no obvious way of getting any nearer without being in full sight of the bird. I took a few shots, standing against the car, using the roof as a rest. 

The owl seemed unconcerned by cars and bicycles passing on Golf Road but I didn't try to get closer for fear of scaring it off. After a few minutes it glided off the iron stake and flew a few meters - towards me, and landed on a fence post quite a bit nearer. I stayed behind the car and took a few more shots, but as the owl was now much nearer Golf Road, where the occasional car or bicycle was passing within ~20 m of it, and it was showing no sign of being scared off, I took a few tentative steps towards it, it basically ignored me but I didn't want to frighten it away so didn't go far. 

The two shots above have been cropped to the same extent to show how much nearer the owl came.

After a further couple of minutes it took off and started hunting in the long grass to the south of the yacht club, finally diving onto something and staying down for a short while. I walked around to join the Ancient Highway and shadowed the owl as it hunted along the sea wall heading gradually south towards Deal. The light was poor and those who have read earlier blogs will know I've moaned about how poor the little Canon can be at flight shots, but I continued to take some anyway in the hope a few may be OK. Well, OK is about all any of them were, most were a smear of pixels across a blurry background.

One of the less blurry flight shots.

I walked along the Ancient Highway towards Deal and watched the owl hunting, a second SEO joined the first and I was torn as to which to watch but they went their separate ways after a while. As the sun slowly re-emerged from the heavy cloud so two microlights flew in over Worth Marshes, putting up hundred of gulls and waders, and scaring off the SEOs. My earlier good luck had run out, I'd been banking on one of the owls being around by the time the sun re-appeared which would give me a much better chance of a flight shot when I could get a reasonable shutter speed. The microlights slowly made their way off towards Thanet and relative peace descended again and the afternoon sun was lighting up the golf course. One of the owls appeared from behind a hillock and flew within 20 m of me and off into the distance before settling on a post beside the track. Not daring to hope I'd be able to get to it before it flew off again I set off towards it, taking shots once I was within range then moving a few more meters and taking another few shots. By doing this I managed to get very close, it sat on the post with the sun on it and I reckon I got within 10 to 15 m of it. All memories of the dull and uneventful morning had gone, I took about 50 shots before it decided to try hunting again, what a result.