A Pleasant Interlude, 14th November 2008

I had a meeting today at Seaforth NR and over lunchtime I had a quick hour look round with Andrew and Steve. The most impressive site were the flock of 18 Scaup close in on the nearest pool. They were a cracking mix of males, females, first winters etc and looked absolutely fantastic in the perfect light we had at the time. I only wish that I had my camera with me.

There were large numbers of wildfowl, particularly Teal, and my count of 300 would have been a huge under-estimate. Eight Goldeneyes and 10 Gadwall were nice as were the flock of 230 Redshank. Something was continually putting the wildfowl, waders and gulls up, but we couldn't detect what it was. As Steve said at the time if you can't see it, it is most likely a Sparrowhawk and I have to agree.

Just as we were about to return to the office to continue our meeting Andrew picked up a cracking adult Med Gull on the far pool. Not a bad way to while away an hour 'at work'!

You will see below a picture of a Great Horned Owl that my mate Nigel from Canada sent me. If you have read my blog before you will know that I do like to show some of Nigel's pictures from Canada because he does catch some impressive beasts!

You can see why it is called a Great 'Horned' owl in this shot.