Parkgate Owls Video Slideshow

What do you do when you've got hundreds of Owl photographs to show and can't choose between the best of them - put them all in a video slideshow of course! The sharpness is a little reduced, so don't stand too close :)
 


Best viewed full screen with the sound on (music by Vangelis, hope he doesn't mind).

And The Beat Goes On ...

The last few weeks have been remarkable at Parkgate on the Wirral, but somehow I had managed to miss out much of the action until today. The Owl-fest started around the time of the high tide when up to six Short-eared Owls had been reported, and then on sunny days over the next week some remarkable photos started appearing on social media.  Unfortunately, I was either working or had made other arrangements on the days with the best weather, and so I sat and seethed in front of my computer praying for another opportunity - today was going to be my best chance.

I'd been out on Monday of the previous week and I got some decent shots, but not the ones I really wanted. So this morning I set off quite early hoping to get some of the Owls hunting first thing, but traffic delays meant that I didn't arrive until around 8am and, worse still, it was very windy.  However the sun was shining and so I held out hope for the winds quietening down in the afternoon, which indeed they did. I parked at the Old Baths car park and set off along the coast towards the golf course with just my binoculars in search of Owls.

There were other bird photographers about including Paul Bennett who had ensconced himself on the saltmarsh up against the old harbour wall in the hope of an Owl landing on a stump eating a lizard right in front of him, - some chance of that happening twice as Neil McMurran had already won that race!

Later I met up with Kevin Evans-Jones and we chatted away putting the world to rights whilst patrolling the area from the car park to the golf course.  I even eventually got my camera bag out but it was just too windy for any birds to appear all morning and so not a shot was fired.  I did have a fleeting view of a Ringtail Hen Harrier flying away from me at one point.

But in truth, very little else happened until mid-afternoon and after Kevin left I went back to my car for some lunch - I even had a short snooze to give my watery eyes a rest from the fierce breeze.   I broke out the camera gear properly and began Owl-watching in earnest at around 1:30pm.  Apart from a lone Kestrel, the first raptor sightings occurred at 2:20pm with a Short-eared Owl hunting in front of the car park and they didn't really ever stop for long until 5:30pm, by which time it was getting quite dark.

There were at least four Short-eared Owls hunting from the Old Baths car park to the promenade with one or two close passes at times.  But probably the star of the show today was a Barn Owl which surprisingly appeared at around 3:30pm and came pretty close - I don't think I've ever seen one here before and certainly not that early.

It gave us some great views as it quartered the marsh from the car park to the promenade and at one point was involved in a bit of a spat with one of the Short-eared Owls.  Just handbags really, with nothing but a bit of talon-posing until they both flew off.

For the last part of the day I drove down to the promenade where one of the birds has been regularly seen perching on some driftwood branches out on the marsh.  I could see that lots of people had gathered there and were looking out at the marsh. Would this be the day to get the elusive perched shot?

Well, not from here, but two birds were flying incredibly close to the sea wall a little further along the promenade so walked towards them a got a shot of one bird on the ground - it's the closest I've got to the perched shot that I so desire.

 

During the course of the day, I met up with some old birding friends including Jeff Cohen, Meurig Garbutt, Mike Nesbitt, Paul Miller and James Arnold and gained a new one called Nikki Mays, so another great day birding on the Wirral.  One guy called Guido even asked me to email him some shots of the Short-eared versus Barn Owl confrontation - so I did.

Will I be going back again for that close perched shot which is still eluding me - probably!

Here's an experimental link to a video slideshow with music that I've put on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/GeekTeacher.Birding/videos/320937278562730/

'Return to Parkgate'

I just had to go back to Parkgate having missed the Short-eared Owl-fest on all the good weather days in the last two weeks. The good news is that there were at least four birds still present, possibly more, so they hadn't moved on yet.

The weather today was OK most of the time although as you can see from the shot below, it did rain at times. Tomorrow should be better of course because I'm working. Wednesday and Thursday are not looking good so I might have one last go on Friday to get my close perched shot if the weather looks right, otherwise, that's me done here for the year.

This is the closest I've got to my highly desired 'perch shot'.  A bit too dark and distant, but it's better than having nothing.  Still work to do on this one, methinks.

It was nice to chat with Kevin Evans-Jones, James Arnold, Paul Bennett and Jennifer Petrie whilst I was there too.

Parkgate Over High Tide

With the prospect of a high spring tide over 10m I headed off early for Parkgate on the Wirral this morning, as I wanted to get a space easily on the Old Baths car park.  When I arrived, the weather didn't really seem to be conducive to a good tide, with very settled sunny conditions, high pressure and no wind.  All these things are needed to produce a spectacular wildlife event.

 

 

Hide Tide at Parkgate

With the high tide being around 10 metres today, I set off for Parkgate on the Wirral wondering if it would bring the raptors in close for some decent photos.  Unfortunately the signs weren't good because the weather was just too nice for once!  It was sunny, calm and settled with high pressure dominating the UK.  For a 'good' high tide you really need low pressure and strong north-westerly winds to help blow the water further inland, and that just didn't happen today.

Nevertheless many raptor species were present including Marsh Harrier, Hen Harrier (male and female), Merlin, Peregrine and Short-eared Owl.  The only regular here that I didn't see today was the Barn Owl but I did have a brief glimpse of a distant Bittern when it sat upright in the reeds across the Marsh.

I thought I'd give the Cottage Lane end of Parkgate a try as the water comes in fastest here along the channels. Almost as soon as I got out of the car there was a Short-eared Owl flying in front of me, but when I went for my camera it soon disappeared over the golf course.

The next bird of note was a distant Merlin on a post. Everything is wrong about this photo - a distant bird, camera looking into the sun with heat haze, but hey, it's the best photo of a Merlin that I've got to date. A female Marsh Harrier also passed by in the distance little later and there were quite a few Reed Buntings in a small patch of Phragmites in front of me.

I walked further down the old sandstone quayside to where the path was a bit wider allowing people to pass me without having to move my tripod. It's amazing to think that in the days of sailing ships the River Dee once lapped against these walls before it eventually silted up and created the salt marsh we have here today.  From here I saw both ringtail and grey male Hen Harriers, but all too distant for decent shots.

At about 1:30pm I decided it was time for lunch, and in this area there is only one place to go as far as I'm concerned - the fish and chip shop in Parkgate. I was a little concerned that I might not get there in time as I had to get back to my car first of all, drive round to Parkgate, find somewhere to park (high tides are always busy days here and parking is very limited) all before 2pm when it shuts.  Luckily I got in and joined the queue of about nine people shortly before the door was closed.  You always know somewhere is good if there is a queues of people willing to wait to be served.

With a small fish and small chips parcel in hand, I drove back to the Old Baths car park at the northern end of the promenade to eat it.  As I arrived I noticed Phil Boardman, a birding friend from Lunt Meadows, standing at the wall with his camera.  I offered him some chips before having a look round to see if anyone else I knew was here.

Phil and I wiled away the afternoon chatting about birding things whilst looking for raptors and bitterns.  An indeed it was here that I got my best photos from today, a Short-eared Owl which appeared in the late afternoon.

It did start to get very cold towards the end of the day, but Phil was determined to see the Bittern fly to its roost, so I left him at around 4:30pm when the light was still OK for viewing but not great for photographs.