A Final Flourish

The very disturbed weather over Northern England and Scotland has continued this week.More heavy rain and gale force winds courtesy of storm Frank have brought more floods and disruption particularly to the Scottish Borders and Northern Ireland.Lancashire escaped the worst of the weather and this gave time to the residents of Croston,Whalley and Ribchester to clean up before the arrival of more bad weather.

There was a lull in the weather on Tuesday and again I took advantage and returned to Lytham Moss where previously I had enjoyed success with the barn owl.On this visit I found the short eared owls were actively hunting and I managed to find a position where I could hopefully photograph them in action.Also on view were a pair of stonechats which posed nicely for me on some nearby brambles. As I was photographing the stonechats I was very surprised to see the arrival of my good friend Bob with Elaine and Dougan the dog.

The short eared owls then appeared close by and I managed some reasonable shots as they quartered the mossland.Later when I put the images on the computer at home, I was thrilled to see that I had captured one of the owls chasing a snipe it had flushed from the marshy ground.As far as I know the snipe evaded capture.I presume this is a prey item the owls will take occasionaly if the opportunity arises. The hoped for barn owl appeared late on as the light was fading but we saw it distantly being mobbed by magpies before vanishing from view. It had however been a super session at Lytham Moss with some lovely images of the stonechats and of the two short eared owls present.This will definitely be my last posting for 2015 as I write this on New Years Eve.I wish my followers and fellow photographers a very happy and healthy 2016.