Over a week ago we were surprised to hear the plaintive mews of long eared owl chicks. The sound was in a different place from last year and much earlier than expected. Here is a youtube video of its call. We tried to locate the cries and eventually spotted this fluffy pair in tree branches. You could be forgiven for thinking we had koala bears here in the Campsies! They shuffled about close to each other, giving each other an occasional preen in between calling out to be fed. I then saw their parent fly onto a nearby branch, and with its beady eye on me, so at that point I backed off and gave them peace.
These photos were taken the night before I left for a trip to the Western Isles. So it was well over a week later when a friend and I headed back to the woodland patch at dusk to try and find the fledglings once more. This time no cries could be heard. We walked around and scanned the woodland thicket for well over half an hour. Just as I was about to give up I took a look at a tree stump, thought “naw, it’s just a stump” but then took a second look through binoculars and saw that the stump had two eyes! One of the fledglings! It is perhaps a bit puffed up here. maybe trying to look bigger as it spotted us. We kept very quiet and still, keeping our distance from it and it soon relaxed and started to doze on and off.
It has developed a fair bit since I saw it last, with more distinct feathers and not as fluffy as before. What a beauty. I love the orange eyes.
After about ten minutes I noticed another head peeking round from behind it! Its sibling! I crept to a different position so I could see behind the tree. By this time it was getting darker and the photo I got of the two of them was blurry. Nevertheless it shows the pair either still keeping close to each other in the same tree.
We headed off as it was getting increasingly dark. Only as we made our way back to the car did we hear the cries for food starting up. Breakfast for long eared owl fledglings is at 10.30pm!
Sarah's Wildlife Watch 