Smudgy

I arrived at the owl field later than usual this afternoon, because I had a raft of things that needed doing at home before I could go out, and by the time I got there the roads were packed with photographers and the whole surrounding area looked like a car park. I hate being part of a scrum like this, and if I'd known how bad things were getting up on the scarp since some idiot posted precise directions to the site last weekend, I'd have gone elsewhere today. However, I have a feeling that the owls are dispersing now, due to pressure on their food supply, and with luck the twitchers will soon follow them to wherever social media tells them is the new hot owling site.

In among the dozens of people milling around whom I'd never seen before, I did run into a few friends and acquaintances - all of us agreeing that this scene was Not Fun - and I ended up chatting for quite a while to Hillyblips, which was fun, and frankly the high point of the afternoon. I'm amused to see that we're posting the same owl tonight, though it's probably not surprising, because only two were working the sheep field we were watching, and this one - which I think of as Smudgy Owl because it has particularly heavy shading around its eyes, running down towards the sides of its bill - was determinedly holding the little territory and chasing its rival away whenever it came too close.

Although my main image comes from the closest fly-by we had, the sunset light was quite harsh, and in some ways I prefer the other two photos I'm posting, both of which involve the wall at the north end of this field, where the light was gentler. The first extra shows Smudgy Owl overflying the wall and preparing to drop and perch on it, which happened several times over the course of the afternoon. The second shows one of those rest stops, and is my penultimate photo of the day.