Nature Watch, with Ron Freethy

VERY few things are predictable about the British weather, but occasionally there is an exception to the rule.

The period around September 21 usually means a period of high wind and during the last few days we have all been buffeted by the gales associated with the autumn equinox.

Two things happen during this time. Firstly, bird migration, and secondly the fruits of autumn have to fight hard to stay on the trees and bushes.

I will be describing autumn fruits next week, but my breezy ambles into the late September winds took me up on the hills and down by the seaside where birds of prey were very much the centre of attention.

In my local woodland the living has been easy and a pair of tawny owls seemed to have produced a second brood of chicks.

This has also been the case with a pair of barn owls which I visited on September 14 in the Hodder Valley. The young were far from being able to fly and I just hope that they build up enough strength and experience before the winter comes.

I am sure that this late breeding occurs more often than we think but I have never seen young owls so late in the year.

The high winds of last week have blown many interesting birds of prey off their normal migration paths and I saw four long eared owls on the salt marshes near Pilling.

I would have expected to see short eared owls in this habitat while long eared owls are normally associated with conifer woodlands.

What I think has happened is that the long eared owls have been migrating from the Scandinavian forests and have been blown slightly off course. They seemed very tired but I guess that once they have recovered they will have terrorised all the birds on the salt marshes.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.