Don't look, it'll come to you!

Nature sometimes has this amazing way of just being there, right when you’re least looking for it. It just appears and takes your breath away for a split second. Take the other day with me, for example. Now, I’ve previously blogged about how trains are a great place to view wildlife from, but I even surprised myself this time!

I looked up and gazed across the, allegedly, lifeless wastes of the fens and was greeted by the ghostly shape of a barn owl hunting silently along a ditch. Ok, I was on a train, but I imagine it was silent! It barely seemed to move it’s wings as it looked for a tasty vole for its tea.

I settled back down to my book, content, not expecting or looking for anything else. Two minutes later and another owl caught my attention, this time the light brown wings and cat like face of a short-eared owl was in my gaze. Two owls in five minutes, in broad daylight as well. The fens were certainly not lifeless on this day!    

As I made by way back from the station, nature’s final surprise of the day hit me! Three sand martins, the first I’d seen this year, swooped and dived above my head. These little guys had just completed a marathon migration back from Africa, something that never ceases to amaze me. How can something so small fly all that way?

You can go out looking for wildlife and miss it, you can search and search and search, but sometimes, just sometimes, it comes and finds you!