What a beauty

Short eared owl hunting over work this week gorgeous I LOVE owls!

Next life..............

[sylvi]

What a beauty he is.xxxx

[charisma]

Well done, great shot! 🙂

[nomoreheels]

Oh so do I. We had scops owls (or may just have been the one, we were never sure) that used to perch on the street light at the top of our little road at dusk. We loved listening to him/her.

The pic is lovely.

[wishbone]

During the winter months Short-eared Owls and Hen Harriers were the main target species of me and my mate when we used to go birding on our local moorland patch. Alas RA put a stop to that!

Lucky you working where you can see Short-eared Owls hunting!...there must be some rough grassland or marshy areas nearby, probably the latter with reeds in your photo, which is a cracking shot!

edit... for those who don't know, unlike many owl species, Short-eared are more active by day rather than night, usually at dawn and late afternoon.

[Gjkas]

Oh Deeb ,that's a perfect shot. I Love Owls ,.I've started to collect them.

I buy them from Vivid Arts, They look so very lifelike that people have actually thought that they we're real..Im afraid to put them in the front Garden just in case anyone takes a fancy to them.

Ive got them in the back garden on the wall and under some small shrubs.

Uptil now I've got the Long Eared Owl,the Barn Owl, Large Snowy Owl and the large Tawny Owl ..I have also got the Lifesize Eagle Owl

They are so realistic it's unbelievable .

Really beautiful. I started collecting them to put on a large wall shelf in the Kitchen, but the collection was getting too big, so now I have them in my back garden. But in the Winter we put them in the shed out of the elements.. You can leave them outside in the Winter. But id prefer to take mine in. 😚

[Hidden]

Oooo what an honour to see in the wild... lucky you....

[MaryTH]

Beautiful x

[Hessie5]

What a beauty - why do they call them wise? 😌 I could Google but interested to know your take 😁

[KittyJ in reply to Hessie5]

I think it’s something to do with Greek mythology but I can’t remember exactly 😂 I do know in India it’s the opposite.

[Hessie5 in reply to KittyJ]

Thanks KittyJ

[KittyJ]

Great photo, I’d love to take photos in the wild but lugging big lenses and tripods around is not going to happen so I settle for going out at dusk to watch the owls down at Wicken fen, mainly barn and little but in the winter the short eareds arrive. They’re very peaceful 🦉

[wishbone in reply to KittyJ]

Barn and Little would do very nicely as well! I haven't seen either for many years, quite a few of them, years that is, before RA put an end to my birding days. Barn Owl has always been scarce in these parts but Little were far more common with around 6 breeding pairs in the surrounding hills where I live back in the eighties. You'd be lucky to see a single bird there nowadays!

[Hidden in reply to wishbone]

wishbone we have a lot of barn owls and where I live just step outside and I can usually see half a dozen swooping around. Very lucky.

[wishbone in reply to Hidden]

Wow!... telling me you're lucky! Me and my mate used to trudge miles to try and see Short-eared up in these here hills and more often than not we failed to see any. We still enjoyed ourselves though. Used to have more luck with Hen Harriers, which were a more regular visitor to our patch during winter.... the grey plumaged males are stunning! I don't half miss those days....bloody RA!!!

[KittyJ in reply to wishbone]

I’m no longer up for sitting in a cold hide. If you pick the right times to go out, when there’s less people about, the owls barely notice you’re there and fly quite low nearby. There’s a pair of little owls we regularly see on the fence posts but they don’t do slot of flying, more fluttering and running. A beautiful sight though.

[wishbone in reply to KittyJ]

Sounds great, except for sitting on a hard bench in a cold hide. Not a bit of good with RA! Don't think I could manage more than a short stay nowaday, that's if I could get to a hide in the first place with my rubbish feet! I much preffered searching for birds anyway.

Yes, Little Owls tend not to do a lot. When I used to get reasonably close to one it would just sit there giving me the evil eye for a minute or two before getting too nervous and winging it. Lovely looking things though! Just how half a dozen pairs disappeared from my patch in approx 30 years is a mystery as the habitat never changed much...I guess something must have though!

[KittyJ in reply to wishbone]

I agree, I’m much more of a walk and see what you find person too. Shorter walks nowadays though. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t get out into the countryside every now and then.

[Smiler53]

What a beautiful bird?

[wishbone in reply to Smiler53]

My favourite owl species. To fully appreciate you need to see them hunting with their slow deep wingbeats and buoyant flight low over rough grassland etc, suddenly pouncing down onto a vole or some other unfortunate creature....a fantastic sight!

[Smiler53 in reply to wishbone]

I love them all Wishbone. Big, big fan of all the Springwatch etc programs and taking photos too. Prefer animals to people 😊.

[Gjkas in reply to Smiler53]

You're right there Smiler .

I Love Dogs. I know some of them have a bad name. But that's the owners fault.

We had a little Corgi for 16 year's.

Even though I worked different shifts, it was like she could sense me coming down the road. She'd be prancing up and down the kitchen, then my Husband knew when to make my cup of tea. We had to have her put to sleep because she had a massive tumour on her back. It broke my heart,.She was my baby.

We said we'd never have another Dog. But 4 year's later my Granddaughter left the side gate open and this poor Dog walked in.

Oh my God she was like a starving Greyhound. You could count every rib,shed been kicked. I won't go into it all. But we took her to the VETS

and they said that she was only about 8 months old ,but whoever had her before she escaped had tried to breed her. She had a massive scar on her stomach where she'd been cut. She was a cruelty case alright. The Vet asked us if we'd like to take her home and look after her. Of course we said Yes.

We had to keep her on a high protein diet for a 12 month.

She was a Cross between a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a Ridgeback. Oh she was so beautiful. She had such great big eyes.

You know, it was as if every day she thanked us for saving her. When people used to ask us what breed of dog we had, and we told them. They were shocked because apparently,they had a bad name. HUH. You could do anything with her. She loved kids, and they loved her. The kids had to pass our house to go to School .Well, weve got a wall around our house and 2 gates. The kids would stop by the gates and call her. Even now, after all these years, if I could find out who hurt her like that when she was a Pup.I would get someone to beat the hell out of them. We had her for 16 years as well.....So we had 2 totally different kind of DOGGIES, but each one of them were loved as much as Family.

Well they were Family really.

They were Loyal and Trusting. they loved us as much as we loved them.

There aren't many Humans that are Loyal, Trusting and true...

Give me a Doggy anyday.

You look after them and they'll look after you.

Our Corgis name was PETRA, 🌹and our Staffies name was SASSI. 🌹.😚

[Smiler53 in reply to Gjkas]

OMG! Thank goodness she walked into your garden - meant to be. Over the years we've had 2 Staffordshire Bull Terriers, both were brilliant dogs, so kind. Also had 5 rabbits, all different personalities. Love animals ❤❤❤

[Gjkas in reply to Smiler53]

Yes you're right Smiler,it was meant to be..

Staffordshire Bull Terriers are so kind and loyal and loving. And yet a lot of people are afraid of them.

I don't know why ??.

Weve had 2 Tortoises over the years. We lost the one we called Flash 2 years ago. We had him for 42 years. The other ones name was

Jolly jelly.,but we only had him for a couple of years. Trouble is that you can't coutch a tortoise.

But you can rough and tumble and do anything with a Staffies. Had plenty of laughs with our Corgi as well. Oh happy days..

❤❤❤❤.Love Animals..

[wishbone in reply to Smiler53]

Iolo Williams has been a good addition to the Spring/Atumnwatch, and I'm not saying that just because I'm Welsh too. He knows his stuff and how to put it over. He's been on Welsh TV nature programmes for many years before he appeared national BBC. Trouble was he mostly spoke in Welsh so that was me stumped!

[Smiler53 in reply to wishbone]

I quite agree with you Wishbone, lolo is great on Springwatch, I also like Gillian Burke, especially when she goes diving with the seals and sharks. That's a bit tricky then watching it Welsh 🤣 I hope they had subtitles!!

[wishbone in reply to Smiler53]

More often than not they don't have subtitles....bloody taffs! My own fault I guess for not paying more attention during Welsh language lessons at school.

[Hidden]

I am very lucky to be surrounded by all this onderful nature in a great backdrop and so much knowledge by the team too and people who take amazing photos of it all.

I love grabbing a hot chocolate and going to sit in the main obs at the end of a day of work and watching the swans fly in for a feed and just thinking I am LUCKY!

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Bliss !

[KittyJ in reply to Hidden]

So is this not your photo then Deeb?

[Hidden in reply to KittyJ]

its from work Kay I think took it, my fingers and thumbs wont allow me anymore to take photos. We have so much camera kit and lenses and all too bulky for me! I thought the strapline of photo by..........had come through on photo but just checked and has, not so will downoad it again with name of person who took it. However this was owl from work place.

[Fruitandnutcase]

Absolutely beautiful. You’re so lucky to see it.

Would you believe I went to the hairdresser this afternoon, as I was early I sat on a sofa while waiting for my hairdresser to be ready and a few minutes after I sat down I looked round and discovered the guy next to me had a small owl perched on his arm!!!

It was a Hawk Owl. It was quite small, very beautiful and very well behaved. I heard him saying to someone once she has eaten she liked to sit and look about. Don’t know who enjoyed themselves most us watching her or her watching us.

[wishbone in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

That's an unusual species of owl for someone to have!...Barn, Eagle and Tawny Owls are more the norm in captivity. A funny old place to see one too!

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to wishbone]

I know, i don’t think I’ve seen one before. It was just very unfortunate that my hairdresser was free just after I realised it was sitting there so I didn’t get to ask many questions about it.

I know Hawk Owls come from a cold country because it chuntered away making owl noises when someone opened the door to go out and the owner said it didn’t like the cold air - even though it came from cold climes and I think I read that it is one that is awake during the day.

I’d love to have known how he and his partner came to have her although there are several owl conservancy in this area.

[wishbone in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

That sounds like one spoilt owl there F&N!

[DRunnerchick]

Beautiful creature to grace our 👀