A Disappointing Day in Lincolnshire

I been planning this day for a few weeks now and when the weather was predicted to be sunny I decided today was the day to go during last week.  By coincidence one of my Facebook birding friends had messaged me the day before to say that the Bitterns were starting to show well again at Far Ings and, as that was one for the reasons for returning, it gave me even more hope of a grand day out.

I set off at 6am in the dark up the M62 motorway to do the two hour drive to Far Ings, which is just over the Humber bridge in Lincolnshire. I arrived at about 8:30am due to stopping for fuel and missing the turning for the Bridge due to confusing roundabout signs.  I ended up back on the M62 going the wrong way, and you what it's like when this happened to you, there isn't another exit for miles!

Goldeneye here ...

Anyway, I was first at Far Ings, but I was soon joined by Sam Gosnay from Wakefield and we had a nice chat whilst seeing very little.  There were two Mute Swans, some distant Goldeneye, a Grey Heron, some Cormorants and not much else.  A female Marsh Harrier did fly past at one point followed by a male shortly after, but they were on the far side of the reserve so too distant for the sort of photos I wanted.

Mute Swans here ...

The Ness Hide at Far Ings is often said to be the coldest hide in Britain, and after about three hours in the freezing cold wind which blows in off the Humber Estuary, I'd pretty much had enough. No Bitterns or Kingfishers, so two of my targets were dipped.  I left Sam wandering around some other parts of the reserve whilst I headed south into Lincolnshire proper in search of Short-eared Owls.

Marsh Harrier here ...

At the undisclosed location I met up with regular birder Don Davis and his friend and we chatted about all things Owls and other birds. None had been seen so far today and they'd been there since 8:30am - at least I hadn't missed anything.  The day drew on and although the sun was out, it got colder and still no birds were showing. Eventually Don and his friend left as they had things to do

Sam reappeared at around 1pm and later his friend Tony, who I had met the last time I was here. We chatted and chatted and chatted and still no birds appeared. And then one did.

Eventually we counted at least three, possibly four Short-eared Owls in various fields, but none of them came anywhere near close.  We walked up the road and back down, but they always remained just about as far away as they could.  One of the Short-eared Owls had a brief tussle with a Kestrel, which had seen it with some prey on the floor and mobbed it to steal the prey. The Kestrel Didn't get it.

The best bird of the day for us was this Kestrel which briefly landed in tree nearby the three of us.  Unfortunately its wing cast a strong shadow across its face in most of our shots due to the very bright sunlight.

The shot of a distant Short-eared Owl below hasn't actually turned out too badly.  Sometimes a background can make a shot and leaving it uncropped works best.  Looks made for a book cover to me!

Towards the end of the afternoon when the sun started to go down, a Barn Owl came out and then another one appeared and soon we had spotted three.  Just like the Short-eared Owl, the Barn Owls all stayed distant and so only record shots were taken.

Barn Owl here ...

We all decided it was time to go but had one last stop on the way out because Tony had seen a Barn Owl land in a field close the road.  Both he and Sam had missed this Short-eared Owl perched in a tree which I pointed out as I got out of the car.  This was probably the closest we got to one today, but by now the light had dropped completely.

I left Lincolnshire quite disappointed that I hadn't got any good shots of the Owls, Harriers, Bittern or Kingfisher. I can get shots of Kestrels, Cormorants and Mute Swans close to home without travelling over two hours to see them, but that's nature and wildlife for you - totally unpredictable.

When I posted some shots on Facebook today a friend of mine commented that if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.  Funny thing is, I see so many people out there with equipment ranging from cheap and cheerful bridge cameras to expensive DSLRs with big lenses that I thought they were!