Barb Owl ( Tyto alba )

Clickychick is attending a conference in Harrogate this week so we decided to make a holiday out of it.  We travelled down to Harrogate in the morning, checked in to the hotel.  So a free afternoon.

The last time we were here we got shots of three Barn Owls at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at Satavely.  So that was were we headed.out there.  Lovely weather for a stroll round the reserve.  Around 4 o'clock we headed towards the part of the reserve known as south meadows.  This was where we had seen owls patrolling before.   We had hardly arrived before CC said "there's one".  We watched it sweeping backwards and forwards over the rough grassland dropping frequently.  These must have been unsuccessful strikes as it rose again quickly.

Eventually it went down and stayed down for quite a while.  When it took off it was clearly carrying a small rodent.  Off it went presumably to find somewhere quiet to enjoy its meal.  We headed back to the hotel.