Well it's about time.

All my birding friends have seen one and nearly all of them have got shots of one ( some of them have got cracking shots) but yours truly,despite birding for seven years,has never seen one.What am I talking about well a Short Eared Owl.So when I heard that as many as four had been seen earlier in the week at Dostill Lake I thought I must get over there because it's about time I saw one.

So after lunch on Friday despite the poor weather forecast I headed over to Dostill Lake.I'd never been there before but it was easy to find being just north of Kingsbury on the A51.As usual there is good and bad news.You get a great view over the lake from the elevated car park but you are a long way from the bunds which the Owls favour.It was free to get in which was great but it cost £3 to get out which was not.

I got there at 1.30PM and had no luck scanning the bunds that run along the lakes when another birder showed up at 2.00PM and as luck would have it I knew him.Just as we had a good chat for 15 minutes Andy called out the magic words "There's one on the far bank and there's another on over there".They were both about 300m away.

Yipppeee!!!! At long last a Short Eared Owl (well two of them actually).A life tick and a Warks year tick (I think Dostill lake is in Warwickshire ????).

Here are a few shots.Not much good but for once I don't care seeing these cracking birds for the first time was enough for me.I did make a mistake by staying by the centre as the Owls were always way off in the distance.If I go again I will walk down the path along the west bund and hope they come a bit closer so I can get some decent shots.