I’ve, not posted for a while, not much to post in fact, the Essex marshes seem to be devoid of much life. Of the 5 or 6 little owl sites I covered only one is still in use. Two years ago I had 6 reliable barn owl sites , now only one is still in use . I fear that the last two winters have taken there toll of both. Another factor on the best BO site is the construction of 10, 430 ft wind turbines, time will tell if the birds are put off by these , they are within 500 mt of the barn nest box. The marsh harriers are very few and far between and last winter I saw only one hen harrier, even the corn buntings are rare here now , two years ago it was common to see 20 or so on the phone wires. One bright spot for the last two winters were short eared owls , here is one shot into the low winter sun.Not to every ones tast I'm sure but it pleased me. Thanks for looking.
It's interesting to read your comments Bob - for me and my pal Bob Johnson, on our local patch, Owls (Lowl, Barnie) seem to be doing pretty well, which is contrary to previous years.
Personally, I think it's testimony to the combination of increased awareness of their presence by the farmers (hopefully helped by us being around a lot) and of their stewardship of the fields, hedgerows and woodlands.
Thank’s All for your comments. Graham, its good to know that to the west of me there are more birds, I did wonder if those that patrol the sea walls would move inland , many days Chelmsford for example was a full 5 deg hotter that here , we had 2 deg they had 7 , quite mild really.
Graham is correct about our local patch where we have great access to four decent size farms and a big hide set up in one of them. There are four pairs of lowls but no sign of young at the mo. There two barnys around our patch and a pair with young just outside of our usual area. The badger sets are undisturbed with the dairy farmer happy for the resident ones to stick around on the basis that he thinks that they are clean. All four farms are in the stewardship scheme and are very keen on their wildlife. Two of the farms have pheasant shoots in the winter and while this is not to everyones liking there is definately more small birdlife on these properties as a result of the hedgrows etc being left in place. And of course there plenty of pheasant and partridge around as well.
Bob
Posted by Nick Mckeown on June 27, 2013 at 1:46 PM
Hello Bob, that set up sounds ideal, I have a few farms available but the farmers are of the “everything neat and tidy” school, they are still cutting the verges this week! All hedges must be 6ft high and square cut, all dead wood removed. I have found a couple of new sites that have long dried grass that should suit BOs so here are hoping.
Discussion
14 repliesTech:
1D mk 3
600 f4
ISO 1250
1/3200 @ f5
"Rustles my reeds" as they say ! or something like that.
Cheers
JR
PS My little owls have young just head popping at the moment.
Personally, I think it's testimony to the combination of increased awareness of their presence by the farmers (hopefully helped by us being around a lot) and of their stewardship of the fields, hedgerows and woodlands.
Super image by the way !
Keith.
A pleasure to view as Phil says full of atmosphere well captured.
Such a beautiful image, very nicely taken too, Bob
Andy...
Graham is correct about our local patch where we have great access to four decent size farms and a big hide set up in one of them. There are four pairs of lowls but no sign of young at the mo. There two barnys around our patch and a pair with young just outside of our usual area. The badger sets are undisturbed with the dairy farmer happy for the resident ones to stick around on the basis that he thinks that they are clean. All four farms are in the stewardship scheme and are very keen on their wildlife. Two of the farms have pheasant shoots in the winter and while this is not to everyones liking there is definately more small birdlife on these properties as a result of the hedgrows etc being left in place. And of course there plenty of pheasant and partridge around as well.
Bob
Nick.
Bob.