It’s been a bit of a busy week for me this week, starting off the week down in Southampton not only to visit friends, but to spend a little time doing some bird watching around the Pennington Marshes along the Hampshire coastline. Since I’ve been back home I’ve been having plenty of late nights and early starts, getting out regularly trying to catch a glimpse of some owls that have been reported to be present on a nature reserve not too far from home, and on top of this I’ve been working closely with members of A Focus On Nature (AFON), the young conservationists network, regarding various plans for a few different projects. One of these projects being to get the ball rolling that will allow AFON to set up a photography exhibition this September aiming to showcase powerful imagery regarding environmental history topics. All in all, pretty busy!
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So, Southampton, a very welcome change of scenery for myself! Spending my days smack bang in the middle of England, the smell of the seaside in the air as I stepped off the train soon brought memories of seaside holidays rushing back to me, but as much as I would have loved to have stopped and smelled the “roses”, it was 3 o’clock in the morning and I had to get some sleep (the trick is getting trains at stupid o'clock in the morning to really save on rail fare…)!
Copyright Ed Marshall. This was the view that was be had at my friends house. Looking out over the River Itchen.
On the Saturday, I had made plans with a friend of mine (the one and only Professor Paul White of The University of Southampton) who is an active bird ringer and an avid bird watcher, and he had told me of his plans to go and try and catch a glimpse of a long-billed dowitcher which had been sighted around the Pennington Marsh area just on the coast. Greeted with the first “t-shirt and shorts weather” of the year, we headed out early in the afternoon, and spent a great amount of time having our hopes raised and dashed by spotting the various other waders that were present such as redshank, spotted redshank, curlew, and ruff. Though I have to admit, I was enjoying watching them through the binoculars so much I forgot to take any photographs of them! Brent geese were there in good numbers and were a pleasure to watch as they passed overhead (not so easy on the ears I might say), but unfortunately there was no sign of the dowitcher for the entire visit, hopefully I’ll find myself down that way again sometime soon to see what other species there are to be seen.
Copyright Ed Marshall. Prof. Paul White searching for signs of the long-billed dowitcher.
Once I had returned home, I got straight back into the effort that I’ve been putting into finding barn owls around the fields not too far from my home. There have been sightings of them being present from around 5 weeks ago according to a local birder that I bumped into, so apparently I have yet to find the right locations and be there at the right time. One evening I headed out to the field where they have been sighted, and got comfortable. The sun set was amazing, and definitely kept me entertained as I waited, the low lying cloud on the making the sun appear like a perfectly visible golden orb. If only I had some owls to pop in the foreground!
Copyright Ed Marshall. An amazing sunset through the misty clouds as it sinks towards the treeline.
Once the sun had set, I moved over to an adjacent field and kept my eyes and ears peeled, waiting for something to happen. It was then that I heard a call, very unfamiliar to my ears, but one I will never forget. As soon as I got home I looked through the RSPB’s database of bird species, listening to each of the calls for the owl species. Tawny I could rule out straight away, and it wasn’t barn, it was in fact short-eared owl! I’ll be back there frequently as and when I get the opportunity, and I only hope that I can start to share some images of them. I guess I’ll have to be patient but then again that’s the joys of wildlife photography, I can happily spend hours sat in a field seeing nothing, with one glimpse of something special making it all worthwhile.
Copyright Ed Marshall. Ok, maybe I didn't quite see nothing, these swans were there to keep me company...
I hope many of you out there share the same viewpoint, and as usual please share your stories of special wildlife moments by commenting below, it’s always great to hear what you have been up to!
Thanks Gwyneth!
Some lovely images Ed.