A sleepy tawny owl

Three birdwatchers approached me as I was standing beside Frampton Court lake and enquired whether I'd seen the Great White Egrets which have been spotted there in recent times. I pointed to the far shore where one of them was standing in the shallows of the shoreline. They had high powered binoculars and managed to watch it catch and then swallow a huge fish which they said was about two feet long. I missed all that.

They were very friendly and soon after asked me if I had see the tawny owl. I hadn't and in fact had never seen one. They said it was in a nest on the state and one of the men said he would take me there. How kind, as he said it was most unlikely that I would be able t spot it without help, and he was right. A few minutes later we gingerly approached a very tall old beech tree close to the Frampton house in the middle of its wooded pasture.

We looked up and there was the owl in its old nest at the end of a broken stump of a branch. I took a few pictures and then moved a little closer to get a clearer view through the branches of the beech. A squirrel roamed near to the nest and the owl retreated so this was the last view I had of it. I was delighted and was so grateful to the very friendly trio who were enjoying their day out birdwatching in Gloucestershire to which they had come from Worcestershire.