Easter Uni Run: Bourne Dark-Breasted Barn Owl

My two older daughters have now passed through the Uni system so no longer provide me with excuses for birding excursions further afield. However, my son is only in his first term at York so there should be a few more years with him. Whilst he does have a room in halls for the whole of the first year, for some reason they wanted to kick him out over Easter - presumably because they wanted to rent it out for a conference. This meant that I had to make two trips over the Easter period over the space of just two weeks. Now, had it been in the middle of autumn I wouldn't have minded but April in the north east is often pretty quiet so I wasn't expecting much. Indeed on the trip up to fetch him there was almost nothing worth going for apart from the long staying Dark-breasted Barn Owl that had been entertaining birders far and wide near Bourne in Lincolnshire. Whilst this is only a sub-species, being the continental form of our own Barn Owl, it would still be a sub-species tick for me and in the absence of anything better I thought I'd have a go. In the end circumstances contrived against me and I could only manage a couple of hours around midday to look for it. Now this bird was known for best being seen early morning or late evening so this was the worst time to try. I duly passed a couple of dull hours staring at a field and some infant Christmas trees before giving up and heading on northwards to fetch my son home.

For the return leg, things were looking more promising. An Eastern Subalpine Warbler had been found at Filey in Yorkshire a couple of days prior. However, the day before it was only seen once briefly late afternoon and by all accounts was very difficult to connect with. It was a shame as Filey was only an hour from York and I need Eastern Subalp for my UK Life List but it just didn't seem reliable enough to warrant having a crack at it. In any event it wasn't reported at all while we drove north to York. There was an added possibility when a female Subalp that was thought to be Eastern was found at Flamborough on the morning of our trip. However opinion later shifted to Western or Moltoni's and that disappeared soon after being found. So having dropped my son off, I decided that there was nothing worth trying for apart from my fall-back option of the Dark-breasted Barn Owl. Even this was only being reported sporadically these days but my hunch that this was more to do with lack of birders trying to see it rather than any change in habits on the bird's part. I hatched a plan to be at Bourne for the evening and to stay somewhere nearby so I could try again early in the morning should I not connect the night before.  Accordingly I went ahead and booked an Air BnB near Bourne. 

Since it was still early afternoon and I had nothing better to do, I thought I would drop in at RSPB Blacktoft Sands en route. This is one of my favourite reserves with lots of hides to look through all a close distance apart. So I set off on the hour long journey from York, arriving at around 4pm. I then passed a very pleased time ambling between the hides seeing what was about. To be honest, with the tide in there was not a great deal to see apart from Marsh Harriers over the reedbeds and Tree Sparrows in the hedges. Still, the sun was shining and there was lots of Reed and Sedge Warblers singing all around me and I took some time to relax and just enjoy being out in nature. 

Above & below, Marsh Harrier over the reeds

The last hide held half a dozen noisy Avocets which were fussing about, complaining about every Marsh Harrier that flew anywhere near and generally making their presence felt. I sipped some tea from my flask and fell into a sort of reverie of stillness, taking it all in and just being content to be where I was.

It's always lovely to see Avocets

 

Eventually I decided that it was time to move on so I headed back to the car and set the Sat Nav for the wonderfully named "Bah Humbug" Christmas Tree Farm near Bourne, some two hours away, With the time being 5:30pm now, that would get me there in time for the evening showing (should it happen). The journey was uneventful and with Radio 4 for company I duly arrived at the predicted time. I parked up opposite the Christmas Tree Farm and got out to stretch my legs for a bit before retreating back to the car due to a rather chilly breeze that had sprung up. After about 15 minutes a car pulled up with a local inside who wound down the window and asked if I'd seen it yet. He said that it was still very much around but the morning was usually the best time and that he was just driving past on the off chance. After our chat he drove off slowly down the road before suddenly stopping and waving his arm frantically out the window. I needed no second invitation and ran down the road towards him. He told me that he'd just seen the bird fly out of the grass and off behind the line of conifers which bordered the farm buildings. So I'd missed it but at least it was around and actively flying this evening. In an optimistic frame of mind I went back to my car to watch through the open window. A few minutes later another car drew up nearby and stopped. "What are they looking at?" I wondered - then I realised: there was the Owl hunting close to the road in some rough grass next to the Christmas trees! I watched as it hunted low over the grass, beautifully lit in the low evening sunlight. As it flew past me I hoped it would stop and perch on one of the Christmas trees as I'd been told it often did but it didn't. Instead it continued to quarter back and forth along the stretch of road, never going very far and constantly in view. In the end I opted to take a bit of shaky hand-held video footage with my camera by way of a record shot. This actually came out better than expected. 

You can set the resolution to HD 1080 for a sharper image

It was a very striking bird with a noticeably dark breast (who would have guessed!?) and a lovely gingery hue to it. It was altogether very obviously different from our own native Barn Owl. After about 5 minutes it headed off out of sight and the local and I both decided to move on. 

I went into Bourne to grab a bite to eat before heading off to my Air BnB which was located down a quite road in the middle of nowhere. Some of the back roads were comparatively narrow with a rather deep ditch on one side so I drove carefully in the dark. I was very tired by the time I got there though thankfully the room was comfortable as well as very quiet in its rural location and I was soon asleep.

Having already connected with the Owl, I felt no need to get up early for seconds and instead opted for a bit of a lie in. With nothing else planned I decided to check out a couple of local nature reserves just to get a flavour of the local habitat. The first was Willow Tree Fen which turned out to have some breeding Cranes there. Unlike the reintroduced Otmoor birds in Oxfordshire, these were wild birds. They'd bred for the first time in Lincolnshire in 2020 during the lockdown when the reserve was closed to the public (and so less disturbed). To try to keep them breeding there, the LWT shut down the path across the reserve and instead built a raised viewing platform where the whole site could be surveyed. It worked well and I was able to year tick two Cranes from right next to my parked car. Apart from that there were the usual wading species that one might expect from such a site. It was all very pleasant.

 

Very much a record shot of one of the two Cranes on show

After that I went to Baston Fen, where one was able to walk along a raised dyke that overlooked a large area of farmland. Indeed I recognised the dyke as having been distantly on view from the Barn Owl site from last night. There was nothing of particular note to see but it was nice to amble along in the sunshine, listening to all the spring bird song.

A Reed Bunting at Baston Fen

Fenland landscape at Baston Fen

Then it was time to head for home. The journey back was long but uneventful and I arrived back at Casa Gnome at lunchtime pleased enough with my latest Uni Run Adventure.