Owls in North Yorkshire

26th May 2024

On holiday at Reighton Sands and my son Stuart had gone for a long walk along the cliff path. He saw a Barn Owl close to where we were staying which appeared to be feeding young in the nest as it would catch prey and leave the site and then return to continue hunting, It was therefore just a matter of finding a spare hour or two to go and try my luck.

I didn't have to wait long before it appeared and started hunting in the middle of the field.

However, what was surprising was that when I was waiting for it to appear I turned around and there was a Short-eared Owl hovering just 10 yards away. Unfortunately my camera was set up for a long distance Barn Owl and in the few seconds it took to reduce the magnification it was flying away and I had to make do with some back shots.

It then flew out over the cliff and performed a fly-past before disappearing from view, never to be seen again.

Luckily I did manage to grab a shot just after it was hovering.

Well that was unexpected!!!!