I have not finished posting details of Saturday 17 yet and I have not started on Sunday 18th but here are some from yesterday – the evening of Saturday 24 June 2017. The first is slightly unusual but the others I’m quite pleased with.
A few years ago I remember pointing out to someone, who was just letting her dogs out of her car, that it was ground nesting season and that the dogs should be under close control. I pointed to the sign giving details. The dogs were immediately sticking their noses into every clump of grass around them but would, of course, “not disturb anything” and the woman asked “Why can’t they nest in trees like other birds?” One of these days I might try to make a list of birds that nest in trees and those that don’t. Ah – Google anyone? Grouse, Turkey, Pheasant, Plover, Avocet, Sandpiper, Curlew, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Snipe, ducks, geese, Swans. And that is not listing those that nest in bushes just a few feet above ground.
I am pretty sure that the bird above is a Skylark – in a tree. It seemed to be making the right noises for one.
If this is a Skylark then perhaps they are getting the idea; but twisting a few blades of grass around on the edge of the fairway is a bit different to building a nest in a tree. It can be quite amusing watching doves, pigeons, jackdaw etc trying to get long twigs through small gaps, so it is obvious that many birds have yet to perfect the technique.
But after seeing the Skylark I was thrilled to see this Barn Owl flying towards me. It was tilting its head down listening to the noises in the grasses below it.
It drifted to one side.
and back round again
making a very slightly zig-zag path across the field
it certainly wasn’t quartering the field and then it flew off out of sight. I waited for, perhaps, 25 minutes with the noise of Blackbird, Meadow Pipit and Goldfinch around me but I didn’t see the owl again.
The images looked OK in camera but once I had got them home I admit to being quite pleased with them.
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