the Long-Eared Owl [Asio otus] Hiboux Moyen-duc was here again yesterday...
in fact it spent about four hours sitting on the ground in front of the Blackthorns.
We spotted him in the young shrubs at the edge of the clump...
I thought at first the overnight winds had blown a large ball of dead grass into the blackthorn...
I'd recently prepared areas for planting some willows.
But there he was, a wonderfully camouflaged lump of grass...
There is no way of telling the sexes apart...
but Pauline reckons that something that sits around for four hours at a time has got to be male!
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| Can you see it? |
At one point, while he was sitting in the long grass, one of the female pheasants...
equally well camouflaged for long, dead grass... toddled over to "'ave a gander"...
Pauline, who was watching through the 'scope, could only see the owl...
but could work out the position of the pheasant by following the owl's eye-movements.
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| You should be able to see him now... [The sticks are some recent plantings] |
Jeremy has a harem of around ten gals...
but once she had decided that it wasn't she beat a dignified, slow retreat...
until she saw two of the other gals and then she legged it over to them!!
Interestingly, the owl wasn't bothered by her presence...
nor did she try to mob it.
Neither, as far as we could see, did any of the other small passerines that spend time sitting in the blackthorn...
similar to their ignoring it when it was in the feeder tree the other day.
Long-eared Owls are recorded as breeding in the Grand Pressigny area...
they use the old nests of other large species...
or nest on the ground in clumps of fern... or under dense bramble or scrub.
So, as it nests from March onwards, I now need to be careful as to what I do by way of scrub bashing..
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| This picture was taken through my big 'scope. |
We've seen it successfully hunting voles in the meadow...
but it is also reputed to be happy to take small birds from their roosts...
so why aren't they actively mobbing it?
If there is one breeding around here, we should see more activity in around a month or two's time...
when both parents will be feeding the young... we'll keep you informed!
On the subject of Owls:
This Saturday is the 10e Nuit de la Chouette....
but there are events on Friday and Sunday as well.
Locally there are events at Benais [nr. Bourgeil (37)] and at the Maison de la Nature in the Brenne [nr. St Michel en Brenne (36)]
Friday evening: 22/03/2013 - Soirée "Nuit de la Chouette" from 19h30-21h30 at the Maison de la Nature... with Tony Williams
Saturday afternoon and evening: 23/03/2013 - A la découverte des rapaces nocturnes from 15h30-22h00 at Benais
Saturday and Sunday at the Maison de la Nature - Week-end "Très chouette"
Saturday afternoon only: 23/03/2013 from 14h30-18h00
Sunday all day [except lunchtime!]: 24/03/2013 from 10h00-12h30 et 14h30-18h00
For more info visit the LPO's site .
8 comments:
Well spotted! The camouflage was wxcellent.
It will be exciting if they nest!
Very, Susan, but highly unlikely... there is a bit too much activity on both sides of the Aigronne... me on one side, fisherfolk on the other.
But just to have it hunting here is nice to watch.
The big Barn Owl box is up at last, by the way!
Brilliant camouflage!
Here's hoping he/she decides your place is a des-res hunting ground and stays around.
Saw a barn owl yesterday evening as I was driving home from Tours :-) [between St Senoch & St Flovier]
Perfect Barn Owl land around there... big open fields to hunt over....
but also roads to cross... low... and risk being hit by cars.
Great spot that and well photographed thro the scope.
We did not realise that the willow cuttings needed to be soooo big. T'internet said small 1/4 to 1/2" in diam. Should we dump these we have in water for you?
No don't dump those, they are fine.
The ones in the pictures are rooted stumps of Crack Willow. They were the marker sticks of the 17 species that were in the nursery bed area... I just chopped of the tree at chest height!! If they survive, I will cut them again a foot lower and turn them into short pollards... the ones that I can't get out of the "pond" that is the part of the meadow that they are growing in, will be cut off at about knee height to give a very low pollard... almost a coppice on a stump.
The result will create a scrub habitat for nesting birds... and a source of pole / biomass for us.
Gaynor...
apologies for not replying earler...
forgot to after responding to Susan...
something must have distracted me...
probably a cat!
It wasn't a good spot at all...
more of a lucky one...
I picked up the binos to see where that "lump of grass" had come from...
and realized that it was a "live" lump!
We keep binos and a bird book on the bedroom window sill...
and the same in the "guest" room...
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