Short-eared owls at last

Monday 2nd March.

Despite reports of 3 Short-eared owls at Sandwich Bay and 7 at Blakehill Farm in Wiltshire where I'd been last week, I'd not managed to see any of them let alone photograph them, so they were high on my list of targets for the next decent weather.

Monday was that 'decent weather'. The owls at Sandwich tend to be seen in the late afternoon so that left me the morning to find something to photograph. With no real plan I set off and drove part of my 'Buzzard route'. There are never any guarantees with birding but I usually reckon on being able to find a Buzzard within a few miles of my home and today was no exception. Two were performing some amazing aerial displays over Sangrado's Wood off the A256. Fortunately there is a little lane running parallel where I was able to park and try to photograph them.

I wasn't able to catch them in their fast dives but managed a few shots as they flew past. I have probably mentioned before that the Canon SX50 isn't the camera of choice for flight shots, finding focus on a moving target is very tiresome and the subject is usually quite a way off before the camera focuses, so it really is a case of taking lots in the hope that some will be OK. The birds drifted away after a little while so I did as well. Staying local I walked around the area near Betteshanger business park. A few birds were moving about and I soon found a small group of Long-tailed tits (not sure of the collective noun!). I was able to stay a few paces ahead of them while they worked their way along the hedgerow and they largely ignored me as long as I didn't make any sudden movements.

From Betteshanger I went to Sandwich Bay to see what was around at the Scrape. There were still good numbers of Fieldfare in the sheep field along Guilford Road, although they are not easy to photograph as they are quite timid if you get out of your car - the one below was photographed from the car, I pulled on to the concrete field entrance opposite Old Downs Farm, giving me those extra yards.

The Scrape was very choppy because of the strong ~ NW wind and most of the ducks were hunkered down on the far side. The Pochard was swimming around and feeding but remained steadfastly far away from the hide only really just coming into range when it took up it's normal position on the island.

With not much else to point the camera at I practiced my BIF (birds in flight) shots on passing gulls, the best of the bunch was a 3rd winter Herring gull which floated on the the stiff breeze long enough for me to focus.

I went home for a spot of lunch before returning at around 3 pm for the owls, I was surprised to see six or seven cars parked up between Dickson's Corner and Mary Bax's Stone (for those that don't know, the stone is a memorial - "On this spot August the 25th 1782 Mary Bax, spinster, aged 23 years was murdered by Martin Lash, foreigner who was executed for the same.") The Owl paparazzi were out in force and I was joining them. 

Everyone waited for ~1.5 hours but the consensus of opinion was that they would have arrived by now if they were coming and they were probably hunting elsewhere so everyone left. I, along with Bernie [one of the few readers of my blog so he deserves a mention] went back to the hide at the Scrape for a last look. A lone Snipe was feeding on the front of what remains of the island but otherwise things hadn't changed much since earlier.

Deciding on one last look for the owls I drove slowly along Golf Road to the far end and equally slowly back again, nothing, not even the ever reliable Grey partridge. I was about to head for home when I spotted Bernie crouching behind a fence pointing his camera. I followed his line and saw the SEO on a fence post - it was a long way off but at least I'd seen it. I quickly covered the ground to where Bernie was standing and we walked very slowly towards the owl, taking shots every few yards. Eventually we got within 40 to 50 yards, by which time the owl started to take notice of us. 

The first two shots were at quite a distance across the corner of the fenced field, the last one was the nearest we got by walking along the path following the fence line. The owl departed and started hunting below the bank of the sea defences, drifting ever further towards Deal, we followed on foot but never got very near and the light was failing fast. I took a few very distant flight shots but most of them were nothing more than a smudge of light brown! The one below was the best of a bad bunch but recognisable as to what it is.

 We spotted a second owl hunting near the road but it was too dark for photography - certainly with my camera anyway.

I  went home a happy man, room for improvement but the SEO was the 17th new species I'd photographed since my end of year tally and although I'm not doing it for the numbers I still find it astonishing to think that I'd seen and photographed (of variable quality, admittedly) so many birds, mostly in Kent.  

Full sized images on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/bignick58/

Thanks to anyone who is reading this and comments welcome.