Excellent close up sightings of short eared owl about 200metres south of Darwin Tower this pm. Even better when a kestrel made two high speed passes at it!

On the way back to the car park (at the information centre/cafe on the Tockholes road) another short eared (It looked slightly darker than the first one, but I supposed it could have been the same bird) showed near to the United Utilities buildings by the side of Sunneyhurst Hey reservoir. It was covering some rough ground both from the air and with short stops on a number of fence posts and was still around when we continued our walk.

Also a good number of grouse on the tops.

Hi Pete,

Many thanks for the additional details.

Cheers,

Bill.

Hi Bill, we took the track up from the Belmont to Tockholes road which is signposted to Lyons Den (yes, that is how it is spelt). The problem was when we got to the top of the track we saw a raptor in the distance but did not get a good enough look to identify it. At this point the track turns left but we ploughed on over deep heather and snow until we crested the hill and got better views of, in fact two short eared. We were now up to our thighs in snow and a long way from a path, but as we struggled on , another bird was perched on a post giving us great views.(the other two birds were still visible so there were three in total)

The birds were covering a wide area but using explorer 19 the reference is roughly SD680204

Hi Pete,

Any chance you could provide a grid reference for the Darwen Moor Shortie sightings please, they are local to me so i'll take a look.

Cheers,

Bill Aspin.

Three short eared owls this afternoon on Darwen moor about one mile south of Darwen tower. Great views of birds both flying slowly just above the snow covered heather, and diving down into it from time to time and also perching on posts. Plenty of grouse about. The informetion centre/ cafe along the road to Tockholes from Belmont Rd has a large picture window made from one way glass so that you can enjoy views of birds on the feeders from a distance of inches! Great spotted woodpecker and nuthatch were on view as well as loads of common tits and finches. As a bonus Vaughn (The cafe owner) makes the best corned beef hash known to man as well as super cakes. Worth a visit.