Short eared owl #19 and Kestrel #20

Another unexpected afternoon of sunshine saw us driving over to the Wirral in search of owls. The gardening will have to wait a bit longer. 
We started at West Kirby Marine Lake, not for owls, but because several species I've not seen this year yet have been present there in the past couple of days. No Red-breasted Mergansers, Brent Geese or Goldeneyes, but we did see our first Turnstone of the season. 
Next we headed to Parkgate but the owls were not playing out today - it was a bit windy and I know they don't much like the wind as they can't hear their prey as well. We did see a lovely female kestrel(extra) on the sea wall which was nice and would have been my blip....if the owls hadn't shown. 
After an hour of no owls, we moved further up the marsh to Denhall Quay and parked at the Harp Inn. Suitably refreshed and relieved, we walked over to the small group of birders/photographers and asked what had been seen so far - NOTHING!  Now I don't have great patience and when it's cold I tend not to hang about too long, but within 2 minutes of us arriving, we'd located a distant short-eared owl, then another and then one a little bit closer. Apparently I am now the new lucky charm and am allowed to come again! 
They weren't super close and it was towards the end of the day so the photos are a bit grainy when zoomed in, but I'm not too disappointed - they were brilliant to watch and they were my 100th different bird so I'm very happy indeed. 
My blip today is of an owl chasing off what I think was a kestrel and I have put another shot of an owl in extras just because I liked it.