Just back from an excellent evening surveying for Long-eared Owls. I'd hoped it would be a successful trip due to the lovely pleasant evening and I wasn't disappointed. Almost immediately on arrival at the site just before dusk we had a pair of birds hunting an area of marshy grassland/pastureland. This pair was seen entering a stand of conifers, presumably to a nest site or to feed young. It was interesting watching these birds hunting the fields, they were getting a bit of attention from the breeding Kestrels and the Blackbirds were going loco too. The owls facial expressions varied greatly as they raised and lowered their ear-tufts depending upon their mood and as they were listening for prey! All in all excellent views.
A short while later in another small plantation we had another bird, this time a fledgling, the bird was calling away and briefly showed as it moved around the edge of the plantation. At this point a male Grasshopper Warbler started reeling but I didn't bother trying to look for it as it was already dark by this point.
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