Barn Owl Watch

Hilborough - 14th October 2014

We have had a Wren back in the garden again today. When we first moved here just over 2 years ago we saw a Wren once but since then there hasn't been any sightings in our garden until about three weeks ago. Now we are seeing the Wren nearly every day and like the Dunnocks and House Sparrows it seems to like our Bug Hotels. To them they are probably more like fast food takeaways.

I am continuing to have problems with iMovie and loading up videos to our YouTube Channel so I took the risk of deleting iMovie but then I had a problem downloading it again so I had to re-start the iMac and the problem I've been having for the last six months happened again; it wouldn't re-start! Fortunately I managed to get it re-started by unplugging all the peripherals (hard drives, speakers & 2nd screen) and holding down command, P & R and it re-started - phew! I managed to download iMovie again so we'll see if that solves the problem. I think it has solved the problem, I have just put a small video of the Wren on our YouTube Channel and it appeared to be quite smooth with none of the juddering that has been a problem for the last week or so.

What with the weather, hospital appointments and dog sitting we hadn't been out since Saturday; so it was good to get out for an hour even though we were a bit late getting out. It was the ideal evening for seeing Barn Owls, it had been wet the night before so the Barn Owls wouldn't have gone out hunting. Barn Owls hunt by sight and hearing and their feathers get waterlogged very easy so if the previous night has been windy or very wet it is unlikely they would have ventured out hunting.

We went to the lane that cuts through from the Watton Road to the Swaffham Road at Hilborough. We have seen Barn Owls quite regularly here and as we turned up to the spot where we were going to watch for them I caught a glimpse of a Barn Owl in the distance. We had been sitting there for a while and Jan caught another glimpse of a Barn Owl the other side of the trees and then a little bit later on a Barn Owl flew along the far edge of the field but it wasn't hunting. Then we both saw one come pretty close to the car on our left but by then the light had gone and no video or photos could be taken.

Whether it was the same Barn Owl we saw but in different places or there was more than one Barn Owl, we won't know; but we have seen a pair of them hunting together in this location before.

Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.