Owls well that ends well

So far, this Autumn has been decidedly mixed. There have been a few tasty morsels. A lifer in the form of an ortolan bunting, good views of a wryneck at Landguard but otherwise birds have been few and far between. Even last weekend when I was in Weymouth it was ridiculously quiet. Even the things I went for disappeared - the rustic bunting was a "seen the day before" bird and I managed to miss ring ouzels and jack snipe amongst others. Over the last few day though I had been desperate to get away to see a mega rare, the grey catbird, at Lands End in Cornwall. Things like helping my nephew at a recruitment fair got in the way. Finally, with over 4,000 people already having seen it, I cracked and went for it, but more about that later.
As it was so far I staged my journey with an overnight stay with the mother-in-law in Weymouth. As I had plenty of time I diverted over to Portland before going to the house. First up I went to the Verne prison. This wasn't a custodial visit but ring ouzels had been feasting on the cotoneaster berries in the moat there. It wasn't at the best time of day when I got there and it was pretty quiet but I did manage to get onto the one remaining bird which was still coming out of cover every so often to have a feed. Whilst I was there I got talking to a local birder who said that the short-eared owls were showing well at the Bill. The weather was gorgeous and warm so I thought it would be rude not to nip over there and have a look. I got there by about 3.30 and walked up to the top fields where they are normally seen. There were already 4 or 5 other birders there staking out the grassy fields. Apparently they start to fly about 4.15 so I grabbed a suitable spot and settled in.

Almost spot on time, at 4.23 to be precise, myself and another 'togger saw a large brown shape lift out of the grass and drift towards us. SEO's will roost during the day on the ground, often in long grass. Then as dusk comes along, or even earlier, they will wake up and go hunting.

 For them this means quartering the fields looking and listening for small mice and voles. They then plunge down hopefully, for them anyway if not the vole, catching a snack for their supper.

Within a few minutes we had 4 owls all round us. There have been up to 7 on the island this Autumn but 4 was a stunning spectacle.

The spectacle lasted about 40 or 50 minutes before they seemed to drift off slowly away from the top fields to hunt elsewhere. A marvellous thing to see though and they were totally unconcerned by the people staked out watching them.

A good start to the trip and hopefully a good omen for the following day when the catbird was in my sights. An early night was in store for a very early start the following day. Fingers crossed!!!