Against the lore

Owling lore has it that Short-eared Owls don't hunt in bad weather. I've said it myself, with great confidence, on many occasions. It used to be widely believed, including by me, that this was because their feathers aren't waterproof, but as all avid viewers of Springwatch now know, that isn't the case. However, the special adaptation to their feather edges that allows them to fly silently doesn't work when the feathers are wet, and therefore they lose a major advantage over their prey by flying in wet conditions, so the received wisdom was thought to still hold good. 

Tonight though, I'm here to tell you that it's not true, because up on the Cotswold scarp this afternoon I watched three shorties hunting in the rain. Not very heavy rain, admittedly - when that started, I called it a day and headed for home - but it was definitely raining when this owl flew past me, and the evidence can be seen in my photos. It was also quite blowy, and dark, and generally rather inhospitable up at the owl field, but none of that dampened my delight at being gifted another afternoon with the shorties, when I'd already reconciled myself to the 23/24 owling season having ended. 

Because this almost certainly will be the end of the season - the weather forecast for the next two weeks promising almost continuous rain - I'm posting two photos from this fly-past. The main image is my favourite of the sequence, though only by a whisker; the first extra might have pipped it if not for the dry grass stems cutting across the owl. My second extra tonight is another photo of a Tawny Mining Bee feeding on euphorbia, which I took in the garden this morning before setting out in search of owls, in recognition of the fact that I'm the current host of Tiny Tuesday. Obviously my bee isn't in contention, but I felt that I should make at least a token effort. I'll be going through the proper entries and selecting my favourites on Thursday.