A Trip to Elmley Part2 - Old School House Track and The Brickfields

15th December 2024

After a superb drive up the entrance track using the metal hide for photography, time for a walk down to The Brickfields where a party of Bearded Tits had been entertaining the crowds. There were certainly 10+ birds present, possibly a lot more. They were very mobile but every now and then would put on a display right in front of the assembled audience.

Also nice to see a number of the "moustached" males amongst them.

When I have seen small groups of beardies before they have often been in fairly loose groups, but here they were on occasions feeding very close together, so close that I was getting four in a shot at once. Here are some shots of just two birds.

Well that was better than expected so now back to the track by the Old School House to get in position for the afternoon Short-eared Owls flying display. For most of the afternoon there was just one bird on view which spent its time sitting on posts in the plantation and post-hopping every 10 minutes. This is a ringed bird (see last two photos) and is one of the young birds from the successful breeding of two pairs here at Elmley.

Then after an hour or so it took to the air and started hunting with brief rests on posts. Enjoy!!!

After about 10 minutes it flew across the trees into the next field and didn't return. Later on at dusk a further 7-8 birds left their roost in the plantaton but flew off to hunt elsewhere on the reserve.