With a sunny end to the day in prospect I thought I'd give the Short Eared Owls recently sighted at Castlemartin Corse a go. In the car park I bumped into David O and we walked down the Corse together.
A flock of 150 or so Golden Plover were flying over the south side of the Corse and flew down to the ground to join a group of a couple of hundred Lapwing. A 100 yards or so past Starmans Hall 2 Merlin flew past quite close across the Corse and over to the dunes on the north side. The reed bed was very quiet though a single Marsh Harrier was seen perched on a bush in the reeds some way off.
Walking back to Starmans Hall the action started soon after 4 p.m. when a couple of Short Eared Owls were seen quartering over the dunes on the north side of the main drainage channel just a couple of hundred yards or so east of the road. Then 3 Owls were seen flying around together. I watched as one pounced down, stayed on the ground for a while and then flew off with a rodent. 3 birds were then seen flying quite high up including the one with prey. A further Owl was perched on a pole at the back of the Corse so 4 birds in all. By 4:45 p.m. the action had died down with just the bird perched on the pole and another on a fence in view.
A Ringed Tail Hen Harrier picked up in the distance flying over the reedbed by David rounded things off nicely. It put up 50+ Snipe.
A great couple of hours in the almost spring like sunshine.