Owlcliffe

Arriving just before 5.30pm I took the Luneside route from Keyline and was almost immediately watching a long-eared owl sat on a fencepost behind the buildings. It then began to hunt over the rough area and adjacent bank and continued to do so, giving ace views, as I headed along toward the Marsh point viewing area.
From there the LEO continued to perform on and off though, this evening failed to work the riverside posts and instead stuck around the pools area.
Soon the barn owl appeared and it gave good views for the remainder of the evening. Following a chat about that damned ermine stoat, a guy who'd been watching the owls but had left on his bike, came hurtling back to let us know that he'd just nearly run it over on the footpath! Of course, I had a good root about but it was by now doubtless sniggering at me from its hidden lair. I'm starting to hate that beast. Even Steve W sent me a text this afternoon to say he'd finally seen it...
As I was about to leave I met Tony Riden by the cycle track pull-in where we had great views again of the barn owl. Peter Chapel then caught up with us again and then what I initially took to be a long-eared owl appeared (6.25pm), flying on the far side of the pool parallel with the tree-lined footpath, but it was soon clear that it was a short-eared. This is, to my knowledge, the first confirmed sighting of SEO here for quite some time, though Peter had seen 2 'eared' owls flying around the ponds earlier though, one too briefly for positive ID (the other being LEO).
Also present at the pools were 7 goldeneye, 4 gadwall, 4 tufted duck and all the other usual stuff.
A roe deer was in the copse at Roase Cottage.

'owling wind

Thought it might have a bit too breezy for owling today but it appeared not to be the case, and the wind dip drop considerably later in the afternoon.
Got off work early and headed to the pools for about 3.45pm. I checked the one known roost but there was nothing there, so I headed for Marsh Point. After a bit of a search I headed back down to the cycle track where I met Guy. Trying to find somewhere out of the wind proved difficult and eventually we settled on him watching from the track viewing area while I went back to the top.
A green sandpiper dropped in and then Guy called to say the long-eared owl had appeared (approx 4.30pm) and was sat on a fence post about 15m from them. I could see it with bins and decided to head down to join him and the other few now gathered. It then flew and landed on another post along the cycle track. Just as I approached the area it flew and started hunting in the open just in front of me. I could go on, but let's just say that it put on a decent show for a good hour giving everyone stunning views. Interestingly, a couple of times it went into Freeman's Wood (the first time I am aware of it doing this).
The LEO eventually headed off up the marsh having done its usual Luneside fence-sitting exercise. Brilliant stuff. I'm really going to miss this bird when it finally departs!
At 5.57pm the barn owl made an appearance and, again, gave superb views passing incredibly close to us. At one point it stooped and flushed a snipe! The barn owl was last seen as it disappeared over the riverside bank.
I just can't tire of this amazing spectacle.

Cheers to Guy for the fab shots taken this afternoon.

Couldn't get down myself this evening but Dan and Steve had great views of both barn and long-eared owl. Check out the LDBWS website for details of these and more. Fuzzy picture by H. Hughes.

LEO puts on early show

The sun was still above the horizon when I got to the pools close to six o'clock this evening, so armed with optimism I headed first for the riverside bank.
I met Graham, one of the local dog-walkers, who mentioned that the barn owl had been sat on a post earlier behind Keyline. It was all quiet along the bank and I met Steve W at the Marsh Point viewing area. He'd had great views of the LEO from the cycle track viewing spot earlier but it had now disappeared.
Well, the weather had held out but it was looking a bit crap for owl spotting! Mind you, the moon was spectacular.
A familiar call high up alerted me to an incoming green sandpiper which dropped onto the pools, presumably coming in to roost.
We decided to head down to the track where after a couple of minutes the barn owl appeared hunting over the bank behind the Keyline buildings. That's more like it.

Earlier Steve had come across up to 6 stonechat around the pools and c30 meadow pipit.

Wet from the west

Unfortunately my only window of opportunity today coincided with a band of horizontal rain sweeping up the Lune that made birding both difficult and rather unpleasant.
A couple of hours trawling the patch in a sodden state 'rewarded' me with the following highlights:

1 spotted redshank on the marsh pool again, viewed from the gate at the bottom of Railway Crossing, or Aldcliffe Hall, Lane depending on which map you use.
200ish pinkfeet & little egret on the marsh.
Another little egret at Frog Pond.
1 soggy roosting long-eared owl.
4 tufted duck, 14 coot, 16 snipe, 8 teal and just 1 visible little grebe at Freeman's Pools.

I think I might give owling a miss this evening...

Update...

Couldn't resist the temptation - it had stopped raining and at 4.30pm I headed down. Just before I reached the Marsh Point end of the path the LEO flew up and landed a few yards from me. We stared into each other's eyes for a minute or so and then it started hunting over the SW corner of the Pools area, punctuated by occasional post-sitting. One thing it did today that I hadn't observed before was hover intently a couple of times.
It eventually flew over the banking and again hunted along the river edge, often landing on the fence posts just metres from me.
It then took off over the river and headed for the tip but was immediately set upon by a pair of carrion crows. Eventually it flew into a clump of trees where the crows and a bunch of magpies began to mob it. It stayed put and after several minutes I left to see if anything was showing from the cycle track area.
I left just before 6pm and neither short-eared or barn owl had appeared.


Thanks to Jeff Butcher for the pic above, taken last week.