Owls! The Long and Short of it

To celebrate my birthday we decided to go searching for owls. We began with a trip to Deeping Lakes in Lincolnshire, a series of flooded gravel pits. We were hoping to kick the day off with views of Long-eared Owl. Arriving at first light we headed towards the hide overlooking the main lake. On previous visits, we had seen them roosting on the island in front of the hide. However, recent reports had been of a single bird favouring the waterside trees to the right of the track before the hide. We scanned the trees without success, several more searches from different viewing spots along the path eventually paid off when Brian located the owl among the tangled branches.

Long-eared Owl

From here we decided to head North East and visit Frampton Marsh. The wind by now had really picked up and made viewing conditions challenging to say the least. We picked out six Ruff among the hundreds of Lapwing and Golden Plover for a year tick but failed to find either of our other targets Little Stint or Spotted Redshank. We enjoyed good views of a female Peregrine and watched a Kestrel finishing the remains of a recent kill and before leaving we found six Whooper Swans in distant fields.

Before heading home we made a detour to Eldernell hoping to see our other target for the day Short-eared Owl. We found three! Two roosting in trees in front of a barn and another perched on a pile of logs a short distance away.

Hand-held phone to scope shot

Short-eared Owl

A Glossy Ibis had been reported earlier in the day, but on arrival, we were told it had gone missing for over an hour. Undeterred we walked the bank towards the area of trees it was last seen in and found the Ibis instantly! It was probing the soft mud in front of the trees.

Glossy Ibis

On the walk back we saw several Marsh Harriers and a ringtail Hen Harrier. We waited at the car park hoping to spot any Cranes coming into roost and managed several sighings. A group of four flew along the distant tree line and dropped into the reeds and another four and then a larger group dropped into the fields allowing for some good scope views before the light had completely gone.