Birding Week - Monday

What a bloody wash out today was, rain rain and more rain!

I knew all my plans for the day were scuppered as soon as I opened the curtains this morning, doohh!

OK a change of plan was needed, rather than concentrating on getting images I thought I'd do some groundwork and preparation for some images at a later date. Currently the UK has an influx of Jays from continental Europe, the reason is an apparent acorn crop failure in their home lands so they are now here in their thousands gorging themselves on our acorns.

To date my best Jay image is shockingly bad at best and what better time than now to try and improve on it. I went out in search of some nice oak woodland and as one would expect the Jays were there too. But they are a naturally shy bird and getting close to them for an image is not easy. Therefore I have set up a feeding station to try and encourage them out into the open. This consisted of a sawn up tree trunk that will act as a table and on top of it I have piled it up high with peanuts. I will return each day for the next week and top up as necessary with more nuts, that is if the Jays find them? Once they get into the routine of being fed I will set up my hide and hey presto my best Jay images will be captured.........oh how I wish it is going to be that easy! But we will see, fingers crossed I may get lucky towards the end of the week?

 

Setting up the Jay feeding station took up most of the morning, in the afternoon I flitted from site to site searching for Short Eared Owls, no luck there either! Because the rain continued to lash down I headed for home around 3pm, a quick stop off at my new Little Owl site No 220 that was first located last week did give me a chance to take my first image of the day. The owl was located in exactly the same place as I saw it last time, sheltering up against a tree trunk out of the wind and rain. Don't be fooled by the image though, it gives the impression that it was dry and bright. But believe me the conditions were awful, it is amazing how today's modern day camera equipment and editing soft wear can brighten up even the worse of days.   

I left the owl at my site No 220 where I found it and continued my journey home. It was now getting quite dark, but not dark enough for me to miss the unmistakable white face of a Barn Owl poking its head out of a hole in a roadside tree! Little Owls use to reside in this tree and even though I haven't seen them for well over a year I always slow down whilst passing in the hope of seeing one again. And what I saw this afternoon  took me totally by surprise.

 

Where had this Barn Owl come from? How long had it been there? Was it one of the previously rung birds from another site? Currently I do not have the answers to the origin of this bird, to be honest I wasn't really bothered at the time, all I wanted to do was get some images of it. For a good few minutes it sat there at the hole entrance watching me watching it, then it leapt out and took to the wing.

It didn't fly far before it landed on a fence post 90 degrees to where I was parked. It seemed curious of my presence and just stared back at me! 

Eventually it ignored me and went off hunting. 

Despite the conditions for photography being absolutely abysmal I did get a flight shot before it departed, below and new blog header above. Again the wonders of my camera soft wear made the image just about usable?  Shot at 4.10pm, ISO 3200, F2.8 and 1/300 second. 

So another new Barn Owl site has been found locally, I think my nest box programme is slowly but steadily starting to pay dividends. I am now making more sitings than ever before, or is it just a coincidence? 

Barn Owls - Roof Cam.

A quick video from the local Barn Owl site where we have the two camera's. This footage is from the camera that is situated up in the barn roof, it shows the three juveniles messing about, just as youngsters do!

Click on the arrow to view.

As can be seen they are well developed and well feathered now, this could well be the last siting we have of these guys before they finally fledge the natal site.

Birding Week - Sunday

After a curry and a load of beer last night this morning was never going to be an early start, or so I thought? Col was due to be picking me up at 9.30am, we had four more owl boxes to put up today. So when I rose at about 7.30am my head was pounding, it was OK though as I still had a couple of hours to wake up properly before our work commenced. A nice hot cup of tea and a couple of paracetamols was what was needed to kick start the repair job of last nights alcohol abuse!

 

I was sitting supping my cuppa and happen to glance out of the window, we'd had a good overnight frost but the sun was rising in the clear skies and although cold it looked as though it was going to be a beautiful and bright autumnal day. I glanced up into the Rowen Tree in the front garden and it was alive with birds, they were busily gorging themselves on what remained of this years berry crop. Normally I'd have ignored all the commotion in the tree but because I am having a bit of a "birding week" I thought I'd make an effort and get the camera out. I was hoping for a Waxwing to be among the feeding Tits, Finches and Thrushes but no such luck! There was also a couple of Starlings, now this is a species that I would normally overlook but when they are feeding 15 feet from you and in good light too how could I turn down the chance?  I went upstairs and grabbed an image out of the bedroom window, and I am glad I did, what a gorgeous bird. 

The Starlings didn't hang around too long, I think the noise of the camera shutter spooked them? I then saw another small finch sized bird fly in, it was obscured by some twigs but there was no doubt what it was, a Lesser Redpoll!!

This is the first time I have ever seen a Redpoll in my garden, what a shame I couldn't hang around longer and wait for its return and a better image, the reason........Col was here an he was an hour early!!! I greeted him at the front door still in my dressing gown! After a bit of abuse from him it turns out I rang him last night and brought forward our meeting time an hour, I'd had too much beer and didn't remember?

 

After another quick cuppa we were soon on our way via a quick stop off at Carl's to pick up the boxes, oh and another cup of tea!

 

At the first site one of the larger boxes was up in a matter of minutes, I never seen a Barn Owl here or any evidence of them but this remote location is only a mile from where a pair of Barn Owls have raised seven young this year, so hopefully there will be residents in the coming months?

It is a very quiet complex of around a dozen old buildings and some of them are quite large, see image below. It just oozes Barn Owl and if a pair don't move in here within a year I will eat my hat!

The second site we decided to put up one of the smaller Barn Owl boxes, yet another good looking site with plenty of potential. Col was happy with the site too. 

Apparently the owner of this barn sees Little Owls around it on a regular basis, I've never seen one here so it will be on my "hit list" for a re-visit very soon.

At the third site we put up another of the larger boxes, I didn't take a photo because I accidentally left my camera in Col's van and it was too far to walk back to fetch it, yes I am an idle so and so!  We did see a Little Owl in the barn where we put up the box so there will soon be a box up for that too.

 

At the last and fourth site of the day the local land owner has been seeing a single Barn Owl hunting around the farm almost every night for the past month. He told us to go and have a look around all the buildings and put the box up where every we wanted, a nice guy! In the furthest building from the farmhouse we found two fresh owl pellets on a stack of straw, obviously this was selected as the site for the box.

 

It wasn't until the farmer wandered down to see how we were getting on that he informed us that his teenage son plays in a rock band and this building is where he practises!!! We needed a change of plan quick, good job we hadn't already put it up! So more buildings were investigated and we selected one that the farmer told us no one ever goes in, it was perfect. 

As I was writing up this post I had a call from the farmer at the last site we went to, he was very excited as this evening for the first time he'd got two Barn Owls hunting around his farm, looks like we got the box up just in time?

Not sure yet what I am up to tomorrow or even where I am going? I think it depends on how much beer I have tonight!!!

Birding week....the start.

Today (Saturday) marks the start of a long overdue "birding week" I have the whole of next week off work and I am going to make the most of it!  Thankfully I have no long lists of jobs or chores to be done around the house so all the time will be mine to do what I want with it. I have on purposely called it a birding week and not an owling week. The reason being the owl scene tends to be pretty quiet at this time of year, unless of course I am able to locate some more Leicestershire SEO's (Short Eared Owls)?

 

So a bit of variety is on the cards, I am planning a few day trips out, going to the coast is a deffo and hopefully a few wader species will put in an appearance? Another trip back to the Peak District is also planned, I just love it up there!

 

So I started the week off as I mean to go on, a nice early start was had this morning. I hadn't got that much time so I stayed local because I'm off to the footie later. The mighty Leicester City are playing near neighbours Nottingham Forest, (hiss boo) at 12.15pm, my prediction is a 3-1 win for city!!!   

 

So this morning I flitted from site to site looking for some SEO's, no luck there but I did bump into a Little Owl at my site 120. It was perched up at the entrance to its nest hole, the images (below) are a bit drab looking and rather grainy but that unfortunately is what your up against when the weather/light is poor.

Hopefully the weather will hold out for me next week and there will be a nice variety of bird images to come?

Black Sunday.

Around a week or so ago I discovered some new Barn Owl activity in a couple of local derelict buildings, that was it I was compelled to make some more boxes and get them erected as soon as possible.

 

It was arranged with my buddy Carl for the two of us to get cracking straight away and last Tuesday night we got on with the task in hand of making two more boxes. Luckily Carl has a huge workshop (see image below) that lends itself perfectly for a bit of wood chopping and nail whacking.

 

  

But before Carl could even think of box making his stomach had to come first! I wasn't going to argue with him so it was a pie and chip supper before the work started. 

 

 

After we had both filled our faces the work commenced.

 

 

It wasn't long before we had two identical box frames made.

 

 

The panelled walls and landing platforms we soon in situ, nothing too fancy with these boxes like sloping roofs and baffled compartments, they don't need to be weather and wind proof because they are going to be situated inside buildings. 

 

 

I have added this next image just to wind Carl up, he wasn't aware at the time but when he went off to make a cup of tea I had a sneaky fag. On purpose I stood next to his NO SMOKING SIGN and took the picture in the mirror that hangs on the door.........sorry mate, please don't ban me!
 

 

The next part of the plan was to get another mate, Col Green to help in putting the boxes up in the derelict buildings today (Sunday).  But my professional box putter-upper called me late on Saturday night to ask for a rain check? He wasn't able to make Sunday morning because of some feeble excuse about being up since 2.00am. He'd driven to Scotland and back to see a poxy warbler, a round trip of over 700 miles, mad or what?

 

So my plans for putting the boxes up had been scuppered, what to do now? The weather was atrocious so any owling was out of the question, then just as I was contemplating my next move a text message came in from LROS (Leicester & Rutland Ornithology Society). A Black Throated Diver was at Stamford Reservoir, a good county bird so I thought what the hell I'd not got anything better to do, let's go and have a look. 

 

Upon arrival a couple of local birders were already there, but the Diver wasn't! Whilst they continued to scan the vastness of the reservoir for a sighting I opted to go and have a look in the small settling pool across the road, and bingo there it was! A quick dash back to the car for my camera and luckily on my return it was still there. I rattled off a few shots, and this image below was just about the best of a bad bunch, low light and torrential rain wasn't helpful. Again I made the mistake of having my 300mm lens and not my 500 with me, but even after being heavily cropped it is still by far the best image of this species I ever managed, so it's going on my blog.

 

 

I did return later in the day but wasn't able to relocate the Diver, not to worry though as the weather was still terrible. Hopefully it will hang around and when the weather improves I will go and try again.

Roadside Distraction

I was driving through the quiet country lanes of Leicestershire in an area that looked just perfect for them. My slow speed allowed me to continually take me eyes off the road for a few fleeting seconds at a time, glancing left and then right. The camera was at the ready on the passenger seat, just in case! I was expecting it to happen, no that's not right, I was hoping it would happen and when it did I was still surprised!

 

Yesssss my first SEO (Short Eared Owl) of the winter.

 

Hand held and shot through the open window of the car, not the best of light for good quality (lots of noise) but considering the conditions I am well pleased with the result. It came at me head on, it was hunting the roadside grassy verge and luckily as it approached it deviated across the road and passed by on the drivers side. The whole episode from start to finish was over in a matter of seconds, but it was still time enough for me to pull up (stalled engine) grab the camera, focus and rattle off a few shots. Only two of the images were "keepers" the one above and the new blog header.

 

The owl then lifted up and over the hedgerow not to be seen again. Not sure yet if it has settled in this area or was just passing through?  I do hope it stays here for the winter, as I will be back!

 

Owl Rescue!

Last night from the comfort of my home I remotely watched via the Internet the Barn Owls where we have the nest box camera. The chicks are growing by the day and at times they even venture out onto the nest box ledge.

 

This now allows us to watch via the second camera which is positioned up in the eves of the barn roof. The three of them can be seen here in this first image all lined patiently waiting for either mum or dad to come with with a food delivery.

In this next image the adult owl has just arrived with a food offering (the one on the beam with its back to the camera) and as usual the chicks went mad all trying to be the first to be fed. In all the commotion the third chick got pushed off the ledge, it can be seen underneath the adult owl as a white blur falling to the ground!

I was quickly on the phone to Glyn (he lives next to the barn) letting him know what had happened. "Leave it to me Rid I will rescue it".

 

And what a good bloke Glyn is, he was soon out of his pyjamas and donning his "headlight" and outdoor clothes to rescued the owl. It took him a while to locate the owl as it was hiding away behind an old door. He can be seen here in this next image returning the misfortunate owl back into the box non the worse for its ordeal.

An hour after all the fuss and once things had quietened down the three chicks were back on the ledge again waiting to be fed, so no harm done.

The great fightback.

Grey, gloomy and very gusty best fits the weather conditions I was met with this morning, not conducive at all for seeing owls let alone any images!

 

Come rain or shine I wasn't going to give up though, I felt compelled to get out there and at least try, well what else are Sunday's for?

 

It was a pretty good start too, the very first site I visited had a Little Owl sitting out on a post, superb a 100% hit rate. I watched and waited for it come closer (nearer to the nest tree) but it didn't, it seemed quite content sheltering out of the wind where it was. I had to make do with this distant image, but never mind it was 1-0 to me!

 

During the next hour four more known sites were visited and nothing was seen, how quickly things turn around, it was now 4-1 to the owls!

 

I needed miracle if I was going to turns things around, I headed to a very reliable site near to the village of Fleckney. There was no waiting around here, as I approached the nest tree there was an owl hanging out of the nest entrance, oh yes in the back of the net, 4-2.

The said owl then disappeared back inside the tree, only for it to re-appear at another hole, and with it was its mate, yes the Riddler is fighting back 4-3!

After the Fleckney birds helped with my tally another "safe" site was visited. A 30 minute vigil proved fruitless......the owls were now pulling away from me again 5-3. 

 

I now found myself not far from an area I'd not checked out before, permission was granted last week by the land owner whilst I was out "networking". He told that he had seen an owl sitting out on a low down post but wasn't sure what species of owl it was? Mmmmm, sounded very characteristic of a Little Owl to me so I thought I'd go and check out the area for myself.

 

It was quite vague in my memory the exact details of the location, well I have had a few pints since then! I turned into the gate way he mentioned and pulled up. I checked out the area and there only seemed to be one tree that gave me the jizz of Little Owl. I checked it out from distance and BINGO two Little Owls were sitting side by side quite high up in the tree, I couldn't believe my luck, it was the equaliser 5-5! I grabbed a record shot of the pair (below) before I opted to move closer. 

As I approached they both flew off, luckily I kept my eye on one of them and saw it fly into a small group of fruit trees in the corner of the field, so I drove down to them and pulled up. It took me five minutes but I did relocated the owl, there was a lot of foliage in the way so I had to revert to manual focusing before I could get an image. Not the best of quality I know but who cares when it was another new site, get in there No 219!

Well that was my mornings owling finished, it was time to head back and I was feeling quite smug that I'd managed to pull the score back to 5-5 after being so far behind, especially considering the weather conditions.

 

I chose to take a back lane home as it passed a location where I'd seen a Barn Owl out hunting only a few evenings ago. I knew it would be a long shot seeing it again this early in the day but judging how my luck was going I'd got nothing to lose.

 

I pulled up adjacent to the rough pasture where it was most likely to see the Barn Owl and started scanning the fields. Nothing was about apart from hundreds of Fieldfare's feeding on berries in the roadside Hawthorne's.  I re-positioned the car in a gateway in an attempt to get a few Fieldfare images, but before that I just gave the tree next to me the once over. And you are not going to believe it, sat there looking back at me was a LITTLE OWL!!!!! No more than 20 feet away and huddled up out of the wind. A quick burst of six shots were rattled off before it fled along the lane and high up into the next tree.

 

After reviewing the image it looks like an adult bird to me and not a dispersing juvenile, therefore it will become my site No 220.........and it also made it 6-5 to me for the day..........YES!!!!!

What a whimp!

It is now getting too dark for photography after work, at this time of year I am limited to weekends & holidays only. But not to worry as it is now the time for more groundwork and networking with the local farmers and landowners. In previous years I have found that if the graft is put in now looking for owl activity in new areas I generally get rewarded come the spring. 

 

So after gaining access permission from several different landowners this evening I went to investigate some old/derelict farm buildings in search of Barn Owl activity. And what a productive couple of hours it turned out to be, no fewer than 4 new owl sites were located, yes you read right.....FOUR!!

I was in the area of Kilby, Arnesby and Fleckney and the tally brakes down to 3 new Little Owl sites and 1 Barn Owl. All three of the Little Owls were located in the old/derelict barns whilst looking for Barn Owls and ironically the last new site, a Barn Owl was located whilst searching for Little Owls, how mad is that? 

 

The first Little Owl of the evening was spotted sitting on top of the barn that I was checking out for Barn Owls, no signs of Barn Owls but never the less this was a superb consolation prize. The light was just holding on at the time and with the ISO pushed up I managed this image before it flew off. Get in there new site 216!!

 

 

The circumstances of locating the next two Little Owl sites was almost identical to the first, I was creeping about in the buildings looking for Barn Owl pellets when I accidentally flushed them from their hiding places. If they had held their nerve and just stayed put I don't think they would have been seen?  But hey I'm not complaining they were new sites 217 & 218 in the bag, yeeeeees. The third Little Owl site also had fresh Barn Owl pellets on the floor so a breeding box will soon be made and erected there.

 

Sadly I had another two locations that I wanted to check out but I was beaten by the light, there is no way I was going to be fumbling around in the dark in an old barn so they will have to wait until another day.

 

On my way home I decided to stop off at a know Little Owl site to see if they were showing or rather calling. They were and I could hear up to four different birds. I got chatting to the farmer about the owls when he casually dropped it out that he had seen a Barn Owl hunting over the different areas of rough pasture during the last few nights.......WHAT!!!  Because of the nature of the farmyard layout it was difficult to see the several different "hunting areas" at once and because it was dark all hope of seeing the owl was lost.......or was it?

 

He suggested I clamber up on top of the adjacent water tower and from there I would be able to see the different hunting areas. And to aid my viewing the scattered spotlights that were around the farm were all turned on, what a good bloke! Now I absolutely detest heights at the best of times and normally I wouldn't have gone up this tower, not even for money. But the cause was a good one so my fear had to be put to one side for a few minutes and up I went. Bloody hell, it was high, a good job it was dark because I don't think I got the true perspective of being 60 foot in the air!

 

I was holding on to the railings for dear life, not really daring to move and then whoosh, a Barn Owl flew past. Superb another new location and a nesting box will be in situ very soon. Quite surreal seeing it flying about 20 foot above the ground yet it was still miles below me. Obviously no images were obtained because it was too dark, it wouldn't have mattered though if it was brilliant sunlight there was no way I was letting go of the railings!

 

Maybe I'll be braver next time..................not a chance!

W.T.O.

Mmmmmmm, I can image that you are asking yourself what is this blog title of WTO all about?

Well, WTO stands for Water Tower Owl, not very exciting or original I know but coming up with post titles does pose a problem occasionally and that is the best I could muster up, I'm in a hurry because its nearly pub time!

 

OK let me explain, my Little Owl site No 201 is situated right out in the middle of nowhere and because of the location I don't visit here very often. All previous images were only really record shots, with this image below being the best of the bunch. Nothing too special about the image, apart from it shows the owl has a damaged left eye. It wasn't until I dug this image out from my archives that I realised it was captured in October 2011, the last time I actually made a visit, naughty me! 

 

Anyway, after bumping into the owner of the farm he told me that he was regularly seeing a Little Owl perched up on the water tower at the back of the farm. Interesting I thought, could be a chance to get some improved images.

 

 

As I arrived it was raining and getting late, the owl needed to show pretty quickly otherwise it would be too dark for any images. My tactics were to drive slowly past the water tower and if it was sitting there I'd grab some shots, it wasn't there! I then continued to drive past and positioned myself about 30 yards away where I'd get a good view. Although the tower was not very exciting to look at I thought I'd give you a feeling for where the owl had been seen, below.

 

As I sat watching, waiting and hoping the owl would appear it did and from out of nowhere? It was on top of the right green tank (I was too slow for an image!) blimey I'd only been there two minutes. It dropped down onto the pipe that connects the two tanks and then disappeared behind the concrete blocks. I then drove down deathly slow so as not to spook it, I managed to get into such a position that I could see under the tanks and there it was! 

 

The light was terrible so a high ISO was required, even then I was only getting shutter speeds of around 1/100th of a second. It sat there looking back at me, it was at this stage that I realised it had a damaged eye, it was the same bird that I saw on my previous visit nearly a year ago! 

 

It didn't seem to be bothered about the presence of the car as it didn't flinch as I started it up again and moved a bit nearer. Thank goodness I had enough foresight to put my camo scrim up at the window, it allowed for some good close up views. 

 

 

It then moved about underneath the tanks and offered a nice selection of different poses as it settled on a variety of different perches.

 

 

The encounter was all too brief though, only about five minutes and then it flew off. I was happy though to see it was still about despite its damaged eye and it allowed me to get some improved images.

Owl flight sequence.

Last weekend when I visited the Peak District the owls showed well at one of my known sites. They stayed quite distant which meant the images weren't of great quality. However, I did manage to rattle off four consecutive shots when one of the owls took off from a drystone wall. Settings at the time were; 300mm, ISO 400, F4 and 1/4000 second shutter speed.

 

Because I haven't been out recently and consequently have nothing new to post I thought I'd have a play around with the four images to see what was possible? Now I am a self taught novice when it comes to editing images but with the use of my photo editing software even I managed to overlay all the images together to produce this cloned  "take off" sequence.

Click on image for larger version.

 

Manipulation to this extent this is something I have not done before and probably won't do again, (I'm not out to con anyone), but it just goes to show what is possible..........good or bad?

More owl boxes.

The weekend before last I went to check out my Little Owl site No 10 not far from the village of Cosby. Although it is one of the nearest sites to where I live it tends to get over looked because when I pass close by I am always on a mission going elsewhere......naughty really!.

 

It is a very productive site and an owl is seen almost on every visit, and that was the case again during this particular visit, but it wasn't a Little Owl? I was creeping around the old barns (image below) looking for the Little Owls when accidentally I flushed a Barn Owl! It was obviously day roosting up in the rafters, my first ever sighting of one here! 

 

 

Since the sighting I had an action plan, the barn owner was informed of my sighting, the first Barn Owl seen on this farm for over ten years!!!!! It was agreed that I would make a new box and then get it erected as soon as possible. So midweek I went around to Carl's house and together we burnt the midnight oil in his workshop making this huge and very heavy box, (below). I know it doesn't look much with the front off but believe me when the owl finds it and settle in they will love it!

 

 

 

Then on Sunday morning Col Green came and picked me up and we went to assess the site/barn to try and choose the best location to erected the box. Col can be seen here pretending he was an owl and why this location was perfect for the box, I dare not disagree with him!

 

 

Perfectly in position, how could any self respecting owl not want to live here?

 

 

Just before Col and I left we completed another good deed by erected a landing perch for the Little Owls. It was positioned just underneath their nest hole that is in the apex of the barn roof. It will enable the juveniles to drop down onto it and then return to the safety of the nest without the fear of falling to the ground and being predated, which happens all too often at other sites.

 

  

Thanks to Carl & Col, the owls love you both!

Dipperless....nearly!

Yesterday (Saturday) I decided not to do any local owling, instead I opted to do a bit of "general birding" in the Peak District. Not exactly local birding but the hour or so drive would hopefully be rewarded with some Dippers, a super little bird and I knew of a couple of likely locations where if I was lucky enough a sighting or two would be made and you never know maybe some images?

 

Upon arrival at the "secret" location things didn't look very promising, the river was well swollen and carrying a couple of feet of extra water, a consequence from the heavy overnight rain, doooh! Unperturbed I walked the bank in search of my quarry, the first bird sighting I made was not of a Dipper but of a couple of Goosanders. They were very wary of me and headed off upstream, but not before I was able to grab a record shot of them, below.

 

 

The Goosanders were nice to see but they were not what I'd made the 60 mile journey for! It wasn't until I reached the furthest point of the access area that the first Dipper was seen. It had been feeding in a quiet area out of the flow above the weir, my presence flushed it over to the far bank and underneath some overhanging trees, too dark and too far away for any images! At this stage I about turned and slowly retraced my tracks back to the car. On the return journey I did locate another three birds, but because the river had rose so much the rocks that they normally perch on in the middle of the river were completely submerged, this was going to be a struggle.

 

I did however managed a couple of record shots of the Dippers, but I had to make do with distance shots that I knew were always going to be heavily cropped and quality lost, I guess my 300mm lens was just not up to the job.

 

 

I didn't plan on the tough conditions that I found the river in, I wasn't going to waste my time here struggling all day, so what to do now?  Now I know I said I was having a day off from the owls but I  knew a couple of Little Owl sites in this area, I hadn't been to see them for well over a year so it would have been rude not to stop off to see if they were still about?

 

I needn't have worried, both owls were still in residence at the first owl site and how good was my luck, they were both out! They stayed distant but at least they contributed to it not being a completely wasted journey. The sun periodically put in an appearance, which made for some nice "scenic" images with the owls on the the dry stone walls.

 

 

 

During the trip plenty of other birds were seen, which was nice but the day was a bit flat really because of the condition of the river and the lack of Dipper activity. But I am not one for giving up, I shall return very soon and hopefully next time I'll have a bit more luck?