Fascinating!

On my previous blog post I announced that I was going to try and resist the temptation to upload any more images of "boring" subjects (like SEO's in flight) unless they were in some way different. Well that promise didn't last long did it because here are some more!

But in my defence the reasoning behind these latest images is because they are from a new (but undisclosed) site in Leicestershire. I have known that birds were here (3 of them) for a good few weeks now and although the light was terrible they are my first images, so I thought I'd share.

Now getting back to my promise of more "interesting" images, these next two are definitely in that category, well for me they are anyway! For those of you that don't know SEO's (short eared owls) spend an awful lot of time on the ground, for the best part of the day they roost on the ground and in the breeding season they actually make a nest on the ground too.

I was recently watching a private area of rough pasture which is frequented by SEO's, I'd been there for around an hour waiting for them to rise from the long tussocky grass and start hunting . Then all of a sudden there was an explosion as two owls rose from the grass right in front of me! Up they came and off hunting they went, unbelievable how could they have been so close and yet I didn't see them?

Once the birds had flown off I took the opportunity to take a closer look  in the grass from where they came, all was then revealed as to why I didn't detect they were there. As can be seen in the images they had both made little tunnels where they could cower down and keep out of the wind and of course stay undetected.

I was fascinated, it was obvious that these "roosting tunnels" were used on a regular basis because they were both full of poo and had piles of regurgitated pellets at the entrance..............cool hey?