Worth the effort.

Last night I made the a last minute decision to stay up and try for owls, a quick check of the weather forecast showed a dropping wind and a clear night. I began to set the nets at 8pm. I took round after round of the all empty nets. At 3 am I had a moment of excitement which soon turned into a moment of terror as a Hare shot out of the bushes straight passed me and into a net. Before I could get to it the Hare had made it's way out of the net the other way thus making a massive hole in one of the special Sparrowhawk nets, I'll fix that later. At 4 am I took a round not so optimistic anymore, the first net produced a Tengmalm's Owl. I carried on walking around and found a Long-eared in another net. No sign of the Pygmy's which I was trying for but not a bad nights work to get these 2.

                                              Tengmalms's owl- Perleugle- Aegolius funereus

I released the Tengmalm's just after 5am and I was hopeful it would sit around and show today, a brief search however hasn't revealed anything. But I know where abouts the bird is sitting, I just don't have the time to look for it. Other sightings through the night were 2 Woodcock and another owl which flew from the top of a bush before I could see anything on it, I only heard the wings clapping against the tree, I suspect a Tengmalm's.

Photo: Craig Brookes.
Posted by: Craig Brookes.

Monday 7th November

Last night (6th Nov) we tried to catch Owls. The wind looked good for us and by 10pm we had caught two. A Long-eared Owl first and then a Tengmalm's Owl. I tried for the rest of the night but failed to catch, see or hear any more.

Tengmalm's Owl - Perleugle- Aegolius funereus

This Morning then (7th) was very quiet. The wind restricted the amounts of nets we had up but I'm not too sure that made much of a difference. The Garden was silent at dawn. No Goldcrests, no Robins, nothing. Throughout the entire morning I managed to catch 12 birds. 4 Robins, 3 Sparrowhawks, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Blackbirds and a Dunnock.

Interesting sightings came in the form of a Long-eared owl leaving the garden (possibly the bird we caught last night?), a Red Kite, 3 Rough-legged Buzzards, few Sparrowhawks again and a notable passage of Yellowhammers and Bullfinch.

Photo: Craig Brookes
Posted by: Craig Brookes