E mails answered. Short eared Owls are back!

Thanks for the e mails, sorry I have not been able to respond, been busy with Hawk and Owl Trust work. Community Owls Projects (COP) is going very well with members of public are engaged and collecting a lot of data from their own areas. Also now writing up all the summer activity's, with a Long-eared Owl report due out very soon. I have also to prepare for the new Long-eared Owl project which is now only 2 months away from starting.

The barn owl that so many people have e-mailed about (this is the one rescued by Kate Lawrence of the Somerset Wildlife Trust), is I'm pleased to say doing very well indeed, so as soon as these weekend storms are over it will be ready to be released. Remember this is a wild bird, and is being released not far from where it was found. The other topic you have been mailing about is World On the Move, once again thanks for the comments about me presenting from Welney and Cornwall, one thing I have learned is my feelings about my part when its over are nearly always wrong. The consistency seems to come from you who listen to it either on radio or on the WOTM website. Perhaps its a big failure of my character in being too critical of myself. I would like to think its a way of continuing to better myself. Anyway thanks for all the comments. Yes I am going on again this time on the 18th of November.

I went for a walk to Portbury Dock this morning and the Goldfinchs (picture of one above for reference) were everywhere, along with Teal and Widgeon towards the sea wall. But the climax was seeing the winter Owl as in a Short-eared Owl. This was a male, and may well be only passing through the area, however it did a lovely low circle and hover over the reeds, before moving out of sight. If anyone see's Short-eared Owls around the Severn Estuary or other inland sites in the South West this winter 08/09, I would delighted to receive the information. I have been collecting data on sites used by wintering Short-eareds for a number of years, what I need from you is date/time of observation and location, if you see the owl more than once on separate visits this will be a bonus for me, what it was doing is important, so if you have the details then its good to make note of its activity as in hunting or roosting etc.

Picture of Short-eared to follow :) D'oh!