Daylight owl action

Following a report of a female Ring Ouzel at Canons Farm late this morning, I took the first opportunity to get down there after college, the only problem being that the best I could do was get there at about 4.50pm, when I brought Josh along. We didn't really have enough time for a proper search but our focus on this quest was interrupted when Josh spotted a Barn Owl hunting by Reads Rest Cottage in the broad daylight of 5.45pm! Around an hour before the earliest darkness in which any Barn Owl seems to be comfortable coming out at the patch, this was completely unexpected. We ran closer while it was hunting round the corner then it did another circuit allowing for some record shots, though neither of us quite had time to set our cameras up properly. It flew behind the barns and the weather set in, and we didn't see it again. Presumably the same bird that Jamie and I had in the more typical light of 7.00pm on Saturday, it's good to know there's one on site after no sightings since October. It seems there's usually at least one around in the winter time but they are difficult to detect at CFBW as they are typically extremely nocturnal there.