Managed half an hour escape from the torture to check out Prestwick Carr just before lunch yesterday. The flash water has all but gone now with just a couple of puddles remaining to keep the attentions of eight Oystercatcher. Further away 2 Wheatear hopped about feeding whilst 80 or so Golden Plover basked in the sun. As I turned to head up the lane a brown bird flushed from twenty feet away on the far verge. First thoughts from the low straight flight ran like Partridge, Mistle Thrush, Cuckoo! but the sound and vision was wrong. The bird perched on a fence post one field away and the size / profile instantly identified Little Owl. Out feeding in bright sunshine (as you can tell from the wretched heat haze) just on noon. It was soon mobbed by all the local Meadow Pipits and dropped to the ground for some respite.
Later in the day returning from a meeting I called at Bellasis Bridge. Great work ethic eh! Never mind, seven Mute Swans fed in the field to the west where they have been a fixture since the floods. Checking the copse singing Blackcap and Willow Warbler were a pleasant soundtrack along with a Starling doing a good impersonation of Curlew! In the fields a couple of very smart Pheasant were staying close to a female. Not sure I've seen many of this type before, the ones on the Carr are drab by comparison.
I checked the wood to the east for a Redwing I thought I heard last weekend. No Redwing but a Blue Tit who seemed to be excavating or doing some housekeeping at a prospective nest sight in a split tree trunk.
Was just thinking this would be a more suitable home for a Treecreeper then.....................
The very same crept past but didn't avoid the attentions of the house proud Blue Tit.
Peter, am pleased to hear about the Little Owl being present.
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