Owl roadblock

I won't bore anyone with an account of my last outing, a pretty pedestrian shooting of a CWD from less than 50 yards. What I will mention is the fact that I nearly had my day spoiled by an owl!

I was driving to the farm in the pre-dawn gloom when the headlights picked up a large obstruction in the road. I slowed to a halt, and identified the lump as a smallish owl (Athene noctua, I think).

I waited. He waited. I retrieved my iPhone from my pocket, adjusted the settings and took a picture. He glared at me. I had reached the point where I was about to exit the car and either shoo him away, or capture him and spend half the day trying to find a vet who'd deal with him, when he finally got bored and flew off, apparently uninjured.

Country life, eh?

maximus otter

 

[shakey jake]

thats pretty cool. looks a bit big to be a little owl to me though, but could be the photo

 

[Camdig]

Am going to say it's a short eared owl, known to spend time on ground like that and is known to nest on ground.
On hill track near me you get this exact thing when driving at night and usually fly 50 yards and land on road again.

 

[Stalker62]

Night Owl.



I'll see myself out...

 

[FISH BOY]

Nice find. Better than one of the roadblocks I’ve faced at silly o’clock down the lanes

 

[Stalker62]

Better than one of the roadblocks I’ve faced at silly o’clock down the lanes

Not a religious man, but I really hope there is a special place in Hell for those fcukers.



Apropos Litter.

There is an old chap, with his litter picker, who is regularly seen patrolling the kerbs and hedgerows of my wee village.

When he has filled his bin bag, he places it next to the bins in the local kiddies play area, in the expectation (I suspect) that it will be taken away when the park bins are emptied.

For the last two weeks, I have found the contents of 'his' litter bin bags strewn all over the play area.

It is obviously a fox, which is 'stealing' the bag, carrying it off to the other side of the park, and then ripping it open, thereby scattering the contents far and wide.

I have just been over (again) to collect 'his' litter, put it all into a new bin bag and then stick it in my bins.

What is it they say about the law of 'unintended consequences'?

 

[Mike L]

Irritable owl syndrome……… a classic

 

[glasshalffull]

The first thing majority of vets wanna know is are you going to pay for the treatment

 

[Dodder]

I was travelling down the A2 from Canterbury on my way to Suffolk one morning a few weeks ago when I saw a Tawny owl sat on tbe hard shoulder. Guessing it to be injured I pulled over, sneaked up behind it, threw a fleece over it and popped it in a bucket with the fleece on top.
Luckily the Suffolk Owl sanctuary was close to my destination so I dropped it off with them.
Unfortunately, I then got a call about two weeks later to say they'd had to put it down as it's eye was damaged and it couldn't have been released back into the wild... What a shame, I was really looking forward to collecting it and releasing it back near where I found it.