Time For A Visit To Wallasea Island

30th October 2023

The clocks have gone back so time for a visit to Wallasea Island for the owls. The owls don't usually come out to hunt until 2pm or later so time first for a wander over to the Pool Marsh and Tillets Marsh area. Quite a few pairs of Stonechat around and as usual quite confiding. This is the male..............

......................and the female.

Also plenty of Sky Larks around, some even in song, and just this one came close enough for a flight shot.

Good to see there were several Kestrels on site and luckily today the sun and the wind were working together so that the Kestrels were facing the sun.

I then saw something drop from a fenceline and fly behind some waterside vegetation..........a ringtail Hen Harrier. This is typically the view you get as they generally fly much lower than Marsh Harriers often hugging the ground, whereas Marsh Harriers tend to hunt from higher in the sky.

It then eventually emerged from behind the vegetation but always flying away. Great to see one so close though.

What a fantastic tail pattern!!!!

And then on to the Short-eared Owls. This year they were very mobile where in previous years they would quarter a particular albeit large area. This year they were hunting all over the reserve which made counting more difficult, but I saw four in the air at once so would guess there were a minimum of six.

This individual was resting uncharacteristically in a mown field rather than hidden in vegetation.

Luckily the light was good today so plenty of opportunities but not coming quite as close as in previous years.

Wallasea Island has an area of 700 ha (1750 acres) but still the owls fight over who hunts where.

Luckily all the skirmishes appear to pass off peacefully.

But the stars of the show today were the Merlin and the Short-eared Owl that perched on the same fenceline just yards apart. This was at a range of some 200+ yards. A special thanks to Jeff Delve for putting us on to them.