This morning I did a TTV (timed tetrad visit) in a tetrad centred on Whitfield and Pineham. No big surprises but a beautiful day and a reasonable number of birds. I did hear a Buzzard calling, but it was walking along the North Downs Way, with high hedges on each side and I didn't see it. The call carries a long way and I'm not sure it was actually in the Tetrad I was surveying. I chatted to one of the locals who told where he'd seen a Barn Owl, so I planned a later visit.
Back at St Margaret's I walked down to "Big Bruce", the gun emplacement and found this female Wheatear on the fence. Not quite as striking as yesterday's male, but a very photogenic subject anyway.
Back in the area when the Barn Owl had been reported, I heard the tell tale "Kee-eew call of a Little Owl. I've seen one in this area a couple of years ago, and it conveniently sits in a tree near the road. It doesn't really have eyes in the back of it's head but sometimes it does look like that.
As it called it turned it's head, look right,
look left,
And then look straight ahead. If you like Little Owls, getting out and surveying a few tetrads seems to be a good way to finding them. It takes you to places that you wouldn't necessarily choose to go birding, but there are lots of birds to see provided there are some good hedges, some old barns and a few bits of woodland.
3 comments:
Tony, dammed inconvenient that the buzzard should be walking along the Norh Downs Way and behind hedges!
Derek: LOL :-))
Tony: I actually like the plainer soft buffiness of the female Wheatear better I think. She's lovely, anyway.
Thanks derek, I seem to have muddled it and I!
Post a Comment