Wednesday 14 November 2012

Owl Before Noon

We set out from the Humber Foreshore car park again and headed towards reclaimed land.  There were no Jays this time, and the Fieldfare had moved off from last week's location, plus the Twite seemed to have done a bunk.  Despite this there were quite a few waders in the inlet - mainly Redshank, but also a single Bar-tailed and a single Black-tailed Godwit.  Out on the Humber mudflats there was a large flock of Golden Plover and there were plenty of Shelduck sprinkled over the mud. 

We checked the 2 water-filled ditches, but there was only another Redshank.  We clambered a couple of stiles and walked along the flood embankment.  There wasn't a great deal to see - no Bramblings or Fieldfare in the hedge, but then luckily, I spotted a Short-eared Owl.  This flew quite close to us before flying high over the houses and disappeared north.
All photos of Short-eared Owl (c) 2012 Maggie Bruce



In the afternoon we spent much longer in the car.  Unfortunately, because we started at 1pm we couldn't actually find an owl of any persuasion.  Instead we must have spotted over a dozen Kestrels, and we counted at least 27 Roe Deer.  We also came across a flock of 200+ Fieldfare feeding on the ground with just a couple in the Hawthorn hedge.  It's a great place for watching wildlife without having to leave a car, so is a perfect venue during extremely cold weather.  

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