On Sunday night myself, Jack and Jr had planned a new trip
to Owl Road but the forecast kept getting colder and colder and in the end I
decided it would just be too cold to be out trying to get photos and film which
was my main aim. The forecast later in the week was for warmer, but still minus
temperatures so we decided to plan on going another day.
As things transpired Jr Jr needed to be picked up from a friend
later in the evening from a place which was about a quarter of the way to owl
road so I, spur of the moment, decided to go owling on my own. And that turned
out to be a good decision despite nearly getting frostbite in my fingers.
It was dead still, with not a breath of wind and cloudless
although the moon wasn’t up. Temperatures were about -16C which isn’t that
cold but holding on to metal objects without gloves does soon lead to great
pain. I also find I don’t function that well in the cold and dark when I am
trying to operate a camera which requires me to have my glasses on when viewing
the screen, no gloves to operate the screen, pointing a headtorch in the right
direction whilst also looking at the camera, having to switch to and operate
manual focus at times, and also having to hold me breath as I was producing so
much cloudy “breath” that the light of the head torch would just reflect back
off it. I did manage to take a lot of film and pictures though with surprisingly
few ending being immediately placed in the trash. Unfortunately I discovered
fewer videos on my phone and camera than I thought I had taken so clearly had
my usual problem of not pressing the record button when I thought I had.
I managed to see Tengmalm’s Owl well this time and
eventually get some footage of two males
although my initial attempts were fruitless and I was close to giving up. I
also heard and recorded a male giving a call very similar to Tawny Owl which I
have heard only once before. A presumed female also gave a “tsjuck” call whilst
a male was singing.
This was only the starter though. There had been very little
traffic along the road and I had not seen any other owlers until quarter past
nine when a car pulled up next to me as I was trying to film a Tengmalm’s.
After working out who we were (not easy in the dark and with hats on) I was
informed that there were Great Grey Owls also to be heard that night… And it turned
out not just heard but also, it turned out a half hour later, to be seen 😊
I consumed that main course slowly and with great delight
but had to wait until Monday morning for dessert which was Hawkie selling its
wares again in the Dale.
Owls, Owls, Owls!!!!!
 |
| singing Great Grey Owl (lappugle) |
 |
| Tengmalm's Owl (perleugle) |
 |
| Hawk Owl (haukugle) |
and various pictures from my phone:
 |
| filming the GG |
 |
| Tengmalms's |
No comments:
Post a Comment