With Christmas beckonning and having bought very little in the way of presents for Teresa up to now I thought I'd rack up a shedload of "brownie" points by treating her to a day out over at the new Cabot's Circus shopping centre in Bristol which opened last September.
We got there for 11.00am as the shops were opening which would mean that we could leave at about 2.30pm just giving me enough good daylight to catch up for a second time with the Short Eared Owls over-wintering at Aust Warth between the two Severn crossings.
We got to the location and found out from one of the locals who had already been there for a couple of hours that the owls had yet to show.
We decided to give it half an hour as the weather wasn't very owl friendly with a gusty wind off the estuary and drizzle in the air.
After about 20 mins one appeared from nowhere as they do and started hunting over the grass.
I'd come well armed this time with bins,'scope and two cameras as you do for all shopping trips and although the weather wasn't conducive to digi-scoping decided to give it a go with pretty average results.
Another SEO appeared briefly and for a couple of minutes there were two in flight hunting but the moment was short lived as the second owl soon went to ground.
It appeared that the keen wind was enough to put the one remaining owl off perching as it continued to quarter the area,a pity as it's always easier to digi-scope a perching bird than one in flight.
The weather was closing in and with the feeling quickly draining from my hands we decided to call it a day and head for home,I must admit that given the dismal weather I wasn't bargaining on seeing the owls at all so to see one perform well for at least 45 mins was a real bonus !!
I've only tried video recording from my digital still camera a couple of times previously,it's a function that I always seem to forget about so with still photography difficult I decided to give it a go,not sure how this is going to turn out but hope it's ok !!
No comments:
Post a Comment