Why the long face?

18th February 2023 was an extraordinary day, during which I managed to bag two rarities within a few miles of each other – and coincidentally both were named on the basis of ‘long’ features on their head.

The long-eared owl is infrequently spotted in the United Kingdom. The wintering population includes both birds that have bred here and others that have arrived from Fennoscandia, eastern Europe and Russia. This is the most nocturnal of the British owls and individuals are seldom seen hunting during daylight hours. Previously I had only seen this species offshore in the central North Sea (in October 2005) when a pair landed on our ship from one of the nearby oil rigs.

The long-billed dowitcher is primarily an autumn vagrant to the UK but has been recorded in all months. The bird itself looks like a cross between a godwit and a snipe. Long-billed dowitchers breed in the Arctic tundra of North America and Siberia, and winter in California and Central America. But sometimes, on their long migratory travels, they wander off course and end up on this side of the Atlantic.

This individual stayed at RSPB Cley Marshes for over a year, and I caught up with it again on 12th August 2023, 30th September 2023 and 6th April 2024.

Posted on 18 February, 2023 21:24 by heliastes21