The search for Shorties

The horrendous weather has had me going a bit stir-crazy over the last few days. So, as the clouds lifted for a couple of hours this afternoon, I decided to head out to the Salisbury Plains to see if I could track down the elusive Short Eared owls. Friends have reliably had some good sightings of 8-11 birds hunting up & down one valley, but somehow we've managed to miss them so far this winter.  Reasoning that the birds should be very active after several days of torrential rain, I was hopeful that today might just be the day.

Despite huge amounts of standing water everywhere, there was plenty of wildlife in evidence. On route to the owl sight, I passed a large concentration of hares in one field, with one group of 6, plus a pair close by.  A small herd of Fallow Deer were also grazing further back in the same field.

Lots of birds to be seen, too - good numbers of Field Fares, Redwings and Goldfinch, as well as a nicely coloured-up pair of Stonechats.

While driving on, I had some good views of the resident Buzzards, as well as hunting male Merlin, and a number of Kestrels, plus a distant male Harrier. All this raptor activity built up my hopes that I might just be lucky with a Shortie sighting!

Kestrel hovering

Perched Kestrel

The weather had other ideas, however. Just as I was nearing the main owl sight, the skies darkened & the heavens opened once more. Stopping for a quick scan along the valley, I had one Kestrel stoop on a vole only feet from where I was standing. In any other conditions it would have been a cracking full-frame shot, but the light levels were incredibly low. 

Close encounter of the Kestrel kind,  un-cropped. 

Just before sunset, a commotion amongst a large mixed flock of corvids (mainly Rooks) had me frantically scanning the skyline to see what had put them up. I got very excited when I spotted what appeared to be a wild Goshawk hunting along the ridge, wheeling & swooping upon a flock of  Field Fares. 'Fantastic', I thought, pulse rate rocketing! However, just as I was getting lined up for a shot or ten, I spotted the falconer who was flying the bird - so not a wild sighting after all!


 Heading home, I was surprised to see another 6 hares had appeared in a neighbouring field - the population is obviously doing very well! I also passed a group of 3 Roe Deer lying down among the dead grass. The elusive owls may not have put in an appearance, but I'm certainly not going to complain.