Predator

I didn't have the best day with the camera today, but I'm still happy to have spent the afternoon up at the owl field. If you've already seen Hillyblips' post you'll know that we tried a couple of different shooting spots without ever feeling that we'd hit on quite the right place, but shorties are tricksy little beasts at the best of times and today they were especially erratic, and in those circumstances photographic success inevitably comes down to luck more than fieldcraft.

I think this is the same owl as the one HB posted, though it was an especially mobile bird so I can't be absolutely sure. This particular hunting pass was unsuccessful, and shortly afterwards the owl swept down into the corner of the field nearest to us, and disappeared. When it showed up again we could see that it was quartering the farmland on the other side of the road, and after some debate we set off after it - only to have it swoop back across us into the owl field, and pounce. 

Having given us a good view of its unfortunate victim, the owl flew on out of sight, and when I next saw it its talons were empty. A little later though, it reappeared with another vole, and this time it deliberately cached it in some long grass about fifty metres in front of us. Short-eared owls are known to cache prey, but I've never read a good explanation of how they make this technique work for them. In this case the owl simply dumped a potential meal in the grass and flew on, and it didn't come back to the spot, or anywhere near it, for the rest of the time we were there. To me all tussocks of grass look the same, and I don't understand how the bird would be able to find the exact place again after a long period of flying around over quite homogeneous territory, unless perhaps that particular clump of grass happens to be its favoured nighttime roost.

The more you watch these enigmatic birds the more fascinating they become, and I think that's a large part of the reason they're so addictive.