South coast encounter
Much of the time for bird and wildlife photography it is the solitude and peace of being alone in nature that is part of the experience; but I do bump into other people when out and about. Often those people are real gems - people with knowledge, a shared passion for nature, and very often they are enormously generous with their advice on where to find a particular bird.
This week it was just such an encounter with people that led me to an incredible encounter with owls.
I had searched the bird sighting records for my area, and for adjacent areas, looking for the first reported sightings of short eared owls coming in for the winter. The owls of Staines Moor that had been there in October have moved on (hopefully to be back later in the winter) so new hunting grounds were needed.
I found a ‘recent sightings’ report on a nature reserve website, and the write up was ‘ambiguous’ - not sure if the sightings were truly recent or just reporting of owls being seen in previous years, I still set off for an hour-and-a-half drive to the coast. The reserve had huge numbers of distant waders, lots of brent geese, far off marsh harriers… would it also have owls? What it certainly had was some local birders, so I asked them ‘Is the short eared owl back this year?’. ‘No’ came the reply… ‘but we can tell you where there are five close to here'.
What those generous people gave me was the location of a fabulous wildlife encounter. Four (I think) short eared owls hunting and playing through the late afternoon. I didn’t get the names of those kind birders… but I thank them.
Highlight of the encounter was seeing the owls interacting. I couldn’t tell if they were mock fighting, or really fighting. I think they were truly playing as they never attacked beyond locking outstretched claws, and the victor of each encounter never chased the other away. Photographically it is challenging shooting a moving target in low light - add a second moving target and with little depth of field to play with it becomes near impossible so these shots are, for me, about behaviour not individual photo ‘quality’.
It was such a magical experience… I just may have to go again! Maybe tomorrow…