Long-eared Owl

[Dogghound]

Thought I would share these photo's of a stunning bird which turned up in the nets recently.


Amazing Eyes



Long eared tend to recieve a lot less publicity in comparsison to short eared as they are much more secretive, butin my opinion these are Britains most impressive looking owl by a country mile. We get a decent influx of both species on the east coast. This one is an adult female and has almost certainly come across the north sea from fennoscandinavia, for the winter.

[The Woodman]

That's a beautiful bird, Dogghound.

A couple of general questions - what does fennoscandinavia mean and was this bird caught in daylight nets - presumably as the image was in daylight? Are birding nets ever set at night?

Thanks.

[KentYeti]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Thought I would share these photo's of a stunning bird which turned up in the nets recently.


Amazing Eyes



Long eared tend to recieve a lot less publicity in comparsison to short eared as they are much more secretive, butin my opinion these are Britains most impressive looking owl by a country mile. We get a decent influx of both species on the east coast. This one is an adult female and has almost certainly come across the north sea from fennoscandinavia, for the winter.

Outstanding.

Oh to have been there with you.

Cheers,

Bryan

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by The Woodman

That's a beautiful bird, Dogghound.

Cheers John.

Originally Posted by The Woodman

A couple of general questions - what does fennoscandinavia mean

Fennoscandinavia or Fennoscandia is a region of northern Europe which include Norway, Sweden, Finland and part of north western Russia. Its a term used to bulk these similar areas rather than true scandinavia which includes Denmark and not Russia.

Originally Posted by The Woodman

was this bird caught in daylight nets - presumably as the image was in daylight?

Yes, this bird was caught during the day. Long eared usually migrate at night however small numbers arrive through the day, particularly mid morning (when this bird was captured). Arrival time and passage across the north sea is influcend by wind, weather and when the bird set off. We were targeting thrushes with large wader type nets when it turned up.

Originally Posted by The Woodman

Are birding nets ever set at night?

Yes a lot of nets are used at night particularly to target waders, terns, gulls, ducks and storm petrels etc. General mist nets used for normal birds are not usually used other than when at roost sites, a most smaller birds tend not to move around at night.

[JeffH]

She's a beauty! Nice pics Dogghound

We used to have a regular winter roost of these beautiful birds at a local reserve but I haven't seen one for some years now.

And, as a point of interest, I believe I'm right in saying that the use of woven willow baskets as nest sites for L-eOs was pioneered here in Cambs at the Woodwalton Fen nature reserve back in the early 80s - a technique that's since been repeated in many other places

Jeff
(Schedule 1 Licence holder for Kingfishers, Barn Owls and Avocets)

[Dogghound]

Originally Posted by JeffH

And, as a point of interest, I believe I'm right in saying that the use of woven willow baskets as nest sites for L-eOs was pioneered here in Cambs at the Woodwalton Fen nature reserve back in the early 80s - a technique that's since been repeated in many other places

Interesting fact Jeff, I didnt know that. We have recently put some of these up, but geared towards hobby colonising a large area of wetland, so fingers crossed.

Do you get many breeding owls in Cambridgeshire? We have scattered breeders in farmland scrub, successional moorland edge and a golf course around here.

[The Woodman]

Thanks for your answers, Dogghound, very interesting.

Regarding netting at night, the inshore fishermen of Morecambe Bay especially those operating from Flookburgh used to set nets for waders at night. Sea Pies (Oystercatcher) and Curlew were considered fit for the table. This practise may well have been a development from incidental catches of birds caught in stake nets set for fish overnight.

Curlew was once legitimate quarry and makes good eating.

[snake]

lovely photo's of a beautiful bird.
Up till a few years ago we used to have LE Owls nesting in the wood next to my house. The youngsters would sit on the telephone wire right outside my bedroom window and call for food all night long. Nice when they first started but they made so much noise it was difficult to sleep. I was glad when they moved on.

[JeffH]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Interesting fact Jeff, I didnt know that. We have recently put some of these up, but geared towards hobby colonising a large area of wetland, so fingers crossed.

Yes, the work was done (in part) by an acquaintance of mine - David Garner. You may be interested in his paper on the subject - see here -

ingentaconnect A study of the Long-eared Owl Asio otus using wicker nesting bask...

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Do you get many breeding owls in Cambridgeshire? We have scattered breeders in farmland scrub, successional moorland edge and a golf course around here.

Yes, we do quite well for Barn Owls, Tawnys and Little Owls with the first mentioned being particularly well catered for by the provision of many nestboxes, especially on county council owned farms.

According to the 2009 County Bird Report there were 31 confirmed/suspected breeding pairs of Tawnys and 46 confirmed/suspected breeding pairs of Little Owls but I'm sure both of these figures are gross underestimates - we have at least two pairs of BOs, two pairs of TOs and a pair of LOs in my own village.

But L-eOs have been in decline here in recent years with numbers of confirmed/suspected breeding pairs down from 6 in 2007 to only 2 in 2009.

Of course we have no breeding S-eOs, but we do get good numbers of winter visitors with no less than 13+ currently being seen around Burwell Fen (part of Wicken Fen), up to 6 on the Nene Washes and numerous reports from other sites

Jeff
(Schedule 1 Licence holder for Kingfishers, Barn Owls and Avocets)

PS. Good Luck with the Hobby baskets

[Dogghound]

Cheers Jeff

Interesting paper.

Sounds like a good area, shame about the long-eared, they are a breeding species which can be hard to detect, so hopefully more remain. I have noticed a clear association with mature hawthorn thickets and magpie nests here.