Woodlife

Last week, I took a couple of members of the local wildlife group out to see the badgers. at first we only managed to get a sighting of a furry grey back but we were luckier later as an inquisitive stripy face came into view to check us out. This is unusual behaviour but I was delighted for the pair of wildlife enthusiasts who had waited patiently (and unusually in silence) for an hour. It wasn’t a long encounter but the pair were beaming as we walked back to the car.

On the way back, I spotted the barn owl quartering the field. I asked the crew to get out of the car when I stopped. I was taking a chance to try and get the owl to swoop low over us. I had done this before with a squeak to reasonable effect, but I didn’t hold up that much hope for a repeat performance.

I had a large, cumbersome, hand held torch and my video camera and I was struggling to operate it all plus the car. We were bouncing across the newly harvested hard ground which didn’t help matters. When I thought I was close enough to the owl, I stopped the car and we all jumped out.

I switched on the torch and switched the video onto record (with my tongue) as the owl annoyingly started to fly away from us. I did my squeak and amazingly we saw the owl turn and head back towards us as I continued squeaking (perhaps a bit too long in my excitement). At first the owl hovered directly over us for a few seconds and then did a couple of low-level passes.

It was an amazing experience for me let alone the two wildlife group members who had never had close encounters with wildlife in their lives, let alone two in one night! The footage is a little rough but I think it conveys the excitement the evening.

Thanks for the visit.