23rd September - Titchfield Haven Canal Path, Hampshire

With glorious sunny evenings through the week I decided to spend Thursday evening walking the Canal Path in the hope of seeing the Barn Owl in lovely evening sunshine.  The best laid plans...

As I drove south, drizzle covered the windscreen and thick cloud overhead.  At the Bridge Street car park it was much the same, dull with drizzle in the air.  Undaunted, when Ian arrived we set off.  We stopped to check the split tree and could just make out the Barn Owl through the leaves and branches, so maybe we would be lucky.

There was very little showing, but plenty of Chiffchaff contact calls coming from the trees along side the canal.  As we approached Posbrook Floods we could see two Little Egrets on the flood and to the right in amongst the rushes a long white sinewy neck that could only belong to a Great Egret. We could see a couple of persons walking along the path that cuts across the fields and crosses the river so we decided to see if we could get a better view from there.

It turned out that we were closer and managed to get some great views as the Great Egret stalked through the vegetation.

The two Little Egrets paid it very little attention, appearing to try and blend into the background as it walked past.

There was a good selection of duck on the what water there was, all in eclipse plumage there were Wigeon, Pintail, Shoveler, Gadwall, Teal and of course Mallard.

After a brief stand off with a Grey Heron, the Great Egret took up a position in the middle of the water and after a short preen settled down.

A Sparrowhawk was flushed by a pair of Crows, it was last seen skirting the trees and bushes along the path.

Calls of Long-tailed Tits alerted us to a large flock of the tits, but also many Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers, they were constantly moving making it very difficult to get a clear opportunity for a photograph, but this Chiffchaff stopped long enough for me.

Wit it approaching sunset, there was a glow in the sky away to the west, ever hopeful we made our way back to the field with the split tree.  We could see the Barn Owl moving about on the branch, so stood and waited.  More Chiffchaff called and a Cetti's Warbler crept through the bind weed covering the fence.

With about five minutes to sunset, I finally saw the Barn Owl fly, the briefest of glimpse as it took off from the branch and disappeared into the branches of the surrounding trees.  We waited willing it to come into the field to hunt, the light was fading and despite the optimistic glow that could be seen in the trees the sun was gone.  It was becoming blatantly clear that the owl was not going to appear and if it did the light was so poor there would not be any photography.  So all we were left with  was this Roe Deer in the field, it watched us as we walked away.