4 Jan 2025 : The weather was a bit grey and damp ahead of the impending snow that was forecast, so I headed up to see the local Barn Owls, sadly when I got there the light was awful and the Barn Owls nowhere to be seen. Looking out to the coast the sky seemed brighter so I got back in the car and headed out to Workington to see if the Short Eared Owls were out.
I’m very glad I did as as soon as I got there I could see the SEO flying in the distance, it was moving about and it had a quick fly past and while I was waiting for it to reappear a dog walker told me it was at the other end of the cliff. Thinking about it , he couldn’t have been talking about the same Owl as it is a good ten minute walk to the other end and so at the time he was watching it, I was watching one at the other end ! So the rumours of there being two Short Eared Owls there were true.
So I headed up the cliffs and true enough there was another SEO quartering in the grass, it was seen off a couple of times by the Crows but kept on coming back to hunt, and in the fading light I managed to get a few shots off. Once home in the light I’ve put the two photos of the first Owl next to the last photo and you can clearly see different wing markings, so its true that the Owl we have all been watching turns out to be two ! that explains why it gets about so quick !
