AUTUMN LEAVES -WINTER DRAWS ON

BUSHY RUFF

AUTUMN LEAF

GREY SQUIRREL

RUSSELL  GARDENS

This morning I made a quick visit to Bushy Ruff  because I had noticed yesterday some glorious autumnal colours in the park there,a still,frosty scene awaited,the sun was just lighting the day as I arrived.
After this I set off for Elmley RSPB on Sheppey arriving about lunchtime,the day remained sunny with a fresh but not uncomfortable north westerly breeze,unfortunately birds were not so obliging,I have not seen the scrapes so devoid of birds before,even at high tide there were just a few lapwings and a couple of black tailed godwits,The Swale was a bit more lively with great crested grebes and shelduck outside the hide and about 200 avocets flying by.My main quarry today though were owls,only having seen one little owl this year.

LITTLE OWL 1

BTGODWITME AND MY SHADOW

LITTLE OWL 2LAPWINGROOK ELMLEY

SHEPPEY SUNSET

As the sun sank slowly in the west I wandered back down the track,finding a little owl sunning itself in the middle of the oak tree, Iwas then distracted by a strange phenonemon, the sun was casting a very long shadow of myself on the field in front of me and it was surrounded by a halo effect, I tried to capture it ,but not very well i`m afraid.Digression over,a short eared owl then put in an appearance,flying low over the nearby fields then diving into a reed fringed piece of long grass not to be seen again,it either caught something and ate it in situ or slipped away un noticed into the twilight.It was now pretty dark so I left for home only to see a barn owl from the car right by the entrance gate,happy days.