A fenny sort of day

After some early cloud, the sky cleared and it  developed into a bright day with a bitterly cold north-westerly breeze. Chris, Lizzy and I wrapped up in layers of clothing and headed out to the fens. Our first stop was Whittelesey, where we spent some time at the Straw Bear Festival, which we last visited on an equally frigid day two years ago.

The festival of the Straw Bear or "Strawbower" is an old custom known only from a small area of Fenland on the borders of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire, though Similar ritual animals have been known in other parts of Europe, and still appear in parts of Germany at Shrovetide.
On Plough Tuesday, the day after Plough Monday (the first Monday after Twelfth Night), a man or boy was covered from head to foot in straw and led from house to house where he would dance in exchange for gifts of money, food or beer. The festival was of a stature that farmers would often reserve their best straw for the making of the bear.

The custom died out early in the 20th century, c.1909 (probably because the local police regarded it as begging), but it was resurrected by the Whittlesea Society in 1980.The festival has now expanded to cover the whole weekend when the Bear appears (not Plough Tuesday nowadays, but the second weekend in January instead). On the Saturday of the festival, the Bear processes around the streets with its attendant "keeper" and musicians, followed by numerous traditional dance sides (mostly visitors), including morris men and women, molly dancers, clog dancers and others, who perform at various points along the route. We stopped to watch and photograph several of the ensembles (the extra shows a musician from Old Glory Molly), but eventually the chill permeated our layers and we decided to move onto our next destination.

Having warmed up in the car (the heated seats were very welcome!) we went for a walk on the south bank of the Nene Washes at Eldernell, a very exposed location, and even colder than Whittlesey. But at least walking helped to keep the blood circulating. After a very quiet start, we eventually saw quite a nice set of birds, including marsh harriers, whooper swans and a lone cattle egret, a stray that's been there for quite a while. 

However, our target species, short-eared owl, was notably absent. When we finally turned to head back to the car, Lizzy spotted one flying quite high, and after that we saw plenty, probably nine altogether. Most were rather distant, but right at the end of our walk, one came relatively close. Of course by this time the light levels had dropped dramatically! They are such amazing birds to watch - a highlight was watching two short-eared owls picking a fight with a marsh harrier. Wonderful!