Brown owls poem n photo

The Brown Owl sits in the Ivy bush
and she looketh wondrous wise
With a horny beak beneath her cowl
and a pair of large round eyes 

Pair of Tawnies in an 'Ivy-bush'.

(im still looking for #6 in the previous post, but im told its definately there !)

Tawny and Ivy

A few shots of a Tawny Owl snoozing in Ivy
Wingate area, Co.Durham

#

Also recent evidence of Barn Owl :-

and proof that THE largest Vole in the county has been captured
courtesy of Miss Joan Britchless :-

nice flight shot of Short-eared carrying prey, copyright of John Bridges, North East Wildlife -   northeastwildlife

Tawny & Leo at Chester-le-Street

Tawny owls dont get much of a look in round my way
ten-a-penny, not really worth the effort etc etc
but there again it is the new year & i suppose we should make an effort

well i looked at 2 likely trees (both neck-breakers), & the 2nd paid dividends...
i suppose the quality of the effort is matched by the quality of the image.....

and its tree:-

tree image needs turning 90 degrees anti-clockwise - the owl pic doesnt, its looking down at us on a 80 degree angle !

Anyway its nice to get somewhere different & out of the wind
Heres a Long fella roosting in a traditional location nr Chester in a Blackthorn & Briar tangle:-

There were probably several more close by in a large Gorse clump, but this one was easy due to loads of whitewash beneath the roost & visible from way off.

(dont know why these pics are going on side-on ? )

Show Starter

A couple of trips to Hamsterley between the downpours at the start of the week:-
#

As soon as this forest edge Tawny moved off, the show began & the first male Nightjar appeared in good light - sadly, i fluffed all the photo opportubities, but the birds put on a superb display, 4 males, 2 females & at least 2 fledged juvs. (different size, shape & weak flyers)
Earliest i heard churring was 8:10pm - although this burst may have been in responce to the prescence of a Jay near the nest area.

#

#Clip, male Nightjar circling above us, moves off contact calling "goo-ick" & flies on, persued by a fledged juvenile.

Nightjar going away

# Camera phone image of 1 going past 15' away - taken well after the light had gone @ 10:40pm

A couple of fledged juvenile Nighjars were flying around , occasionally begging, with one crash landing into a tree !
Also begging were fledged Woodcock young ( couple of ads still roding )trailing adults & Green Woodpecker with fledged young too:-

One Nest site was close to the track :-

Fragment of hatched Njar egg

Holiday afternoon

Went up Charlaw, to visit the farm for the first time

A nice little place with Tree Spugs zipping around the car park, while the adventure trail area wood, with its zip slides / ropes etc produced singing male Redstart, which was a pleasing surprise given that it was 95+% Scots Pine.
Others included Siskin, Treecreeper, GSW, Coal Tit etc

Moved off to have a look at the Tawny stick nest

It wasnt looking good, evenyually trailed the family through nettles, bracken & brambles to find an empty nest . . .

No sooner had i said we need to look out for some fluffy white balls up the trees, when Jack shouted (from ontop of my shoulders) "i can see an owl"

& there it was :-









The smile says it all, Yes no doubting he found it !

& no doubt one of many more to come . . .



pretending it didnt exist




Junior Foto Ninja
(the school camera is filling up with owl images quite nicely)



Interesting tree right over top of footpath on the adventure trail - remind us not to go back on a windy day




a pleasant afternoon



bugs on declining Scots Pine - cockchafers ?

Along Long Edge

Long Edge area


fem greenland Wheatear,
2Tree Sparrow,
1Buzzard,
Cuckoo,
mRedstart singing from fence at small plantation
sev Goldcrest & Coal Tit - unaffected by the winter snow under the shelter of the 60-70' Spruces.
mLong-eared Owl in reg loc - trees 60' plus - No chance of an image under dark canopy

Pleasing to find min of 4m2f Tree Pipit,

not much song or display, the males all busy collecting food, seemed to be mostly caterpillars

male with food

100m further on had to cut across to avoid a boggy area, another male showed



& chanced upon a nest, as i paused by a large stump to scan for Nightjar (again)









Back into cover of the woods as rain & hail came . . .

Tawny Owl - 2 juvs at stick nest in Scots Pine.


Chick in nest - at first glance through bins, i thought the feathers sticking up belonged to the head of a female Long-eard....



Tawny in stick nest in Scots Pine
NB: Looks like the bottom of the nest is gonna fall through at any moment !




out & about

This is the best chance ive had to see Tawny using a stick nest, as more often than not theyre tucked out of sight.
Not sure, but i think its a "multiple" pigeon nests, rather than a corvids ?

As i retreated the young both began to beg for food - this was 2:30 in the afternoon.
Im pretty sure many Tawnies can hunt at any time - would have stayed to see if an adult came in, but it tipped it down with hail stones, so i headed back.



signs close to the male Long-eared Owl's roost



Another babe in the woods . . . the things you find if you go down to the woods . . .