By the end of January I was getting desperate to find a short eared owl, I was sure I was the only person who’d never found one now! So when a friend offered me a lift to Elmley I accepted the offer straight away! The plan was for me to try and see all five owl species in a single day.
First thing in the morning I headed onto to Hampstead Heath to have a look for the tawny. I soon found 3 meadow pipits hiding in the damp grass and a huge flock of at least sixty siskin. I then met Sam Levy and we headed to towards to kenwood to have a look around. Imagine my disappointment when, on the one day I really wanted to see it, the tawny owl wasn’t there! Despite this we found seven goldcrest ,a few gadwall and a kestrel but not much else. While Sam continued his walk I headed off to Charing Cross to catch the train. I arrived in Sevenoaks half an hour later where I continued the journey by car with my friend Henry who I’d met at rainham a few months before.
On arriving at elmley we were greeted by several marsh Harriers, a very pale buzzard which I mistook for a rough legged buzzard, plenty of lapwing, a pair of shelduck, redshanks, brown hares and thirty or so curlew along the entry road.
Within seconds of getting out of the car I had two lifers! First a long eared owl hiding in the trees through someone’s scope followed by the brilliant sight of a short eared owl perched only thirty metres away! While still in the car park we had fly over black tailed godwits and a raven
Short eared owl, a long awaited lifer
Spot the long eared owl
We then proceeded towards an old building where we could apparently see little owl. long before we made it there we were stopped by several incredible short eared owls hunting along the side of the path who showed incredibly!
Short eared owls being kinda friendly
We’d feared the grey weather might bring rain and ruin our chances of seeing owls but instead it had put the whole island in constant dim dusk-like state which meant the owls were hunting all day! At the end of the path we were treated to the grim view across Sheppey towards the river. By the riverside was a large reedbed where we could make out distant marsh harriers hunting.
Distant marsh harrier
Eventually someone picked out the little owl on the ruined building (a school I believe).
We spent another hour watching the short eared owls battling along the edge of the path giving some amazing photo opportunities (all of which I missed out on)
My incredible action shots
Then we headed over towards the sea wall where I hoped to see some waders. We didn’t get very far before we were distracted by owls again though! The bay was full of wigeon but the high tide meant the only waders visible were a few turnstone and a redshank.
Turnstones
We decided to head back towards the car park in the hope of finding a barn owl rather than continuing along the sea wall. Near the car park another helpful birder put us onto a pair of peregrine perched around a kilometre away! I was amazed that anyone had seen them from so far off and even more so when they then found a merlin at a similar distance. I had a look through the scope and decided I’d have to take their word for it that the distant blob was even a bird. For that reason, merlin isn’t on my year list. We failed to find any barn owls but as we drove out of the reserve we were treated to awesome views of a short eared owl alongside the car! In all it was a very successful day and I’d got my two target birds without any trouble at all!
I had that same pale buzzard at Elmley in Feb, was convinced it was a Rough Legged but now I'm doubting it
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