Shortly after Christmas I was eager to return to the Burgh to look for the Short-eared Owls again. It was a glorious, cold and sunny afternoon but had been raining in the morning and all of the previous day - the optimum conditions for owl spotting as they don't like hunting in the rain so will be hungry and come out earlier in the afternoons once it stops. I was really excited but this time my whole family had come along too and were less excited about the prospect of standing in the cold for 45mins, hence why snacks and books were brought to keep everybody occupied!
The walk up was beautiful looking back down into the River Arun floodplain with Arundel twinkling in the distance. Occasionally I glanced down at the flooded fields below in the hope of catching sight of the recently returned Bewick's Swans, but had no luck.
Just as we neared the rough fields where the owls like to hunt, I spotted two gentleman watching the fields with big scopes and binoculars. They were very kind and helpful and pointed out a Short-eared Owl perched very distantly in a bush. I thanked them for their help and after checking they didn't mind I carried on walking closer, the owl still an imposing mottled brown lump in one of the windswept hawthorn bushes.
An anxious moment ensued as the owl was chased out of its bush by a Kestrel just as I neared the distance from the bird in which I could begin to think about taking photos. Luckily it returned to its bush shortly after but was looking the wrong way for some time. Eventually its pale disc shaped face with its saffron yellow eyes and its black smudgy 'eye patches' appeared in my camera viewfinder and full of exhilaration I fired away a few photos, although still being a few hundred metres away and with a shutter speed restricted to 1/100s my photos weren't quite as sharp as I'd like them to be.
Eventually as the sun slipped behind a distant rounded silhouette of the South Downs the owl took flight, silently patrolling the areas of rough grassland to seize an unsuspecting vole. The owl slowly got more distant but it was then that I noticed another, sitting extremely well camouflaged in the depths of another bush. Suddenly an unexpected, much paler shaped drifted across the field. Checking through my binoculars I was both surprised and delighted as this shape morphed into a graceful Barn Owl, which unlike the Shortie's glide then suddenly dive, the 'Barny' would hover, talons loose, before diving to seize its quarry.
It was such a magical moment, alone in the heart of picturesque downland as dusk crept in watching these owls hunt to elegantly over the grassland, the ghostly white Barn Owl and the giant mottled brown moth the Short-eared Owl.
Whilst this has got to be once of my most special wildlife encounters ever, unfortunately a combination of this being my first time photographing owls and the rapidly fading light meant that my photos were of poor quality and vastly inferior to some of the amazing images you see on places such as instagram (just search #owls - There are some truly inspirational and mind-blowingly amazing shots out there!) but I'll share my images anyway as they serve as a nice memento
of my amazing experience.
Hopefully I'll be heading back shortly to improve my photos!
Short-eared Owl perched in a bush - you can just see its wonderful yellow eyes
Barn Owl on the hunt
Barn Owl hovering
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