Hedwig comes to town

Friday 9th March 2018
Snowy Owl!
What a great way to end the working week. Straight home on a Friday night, pick up the dogs and off to Norfolk with Sue to see a Snowy Owl - the type to be seen in Harry Potter movies and known as Hedwig.
Now some birds are small, brown and boring. Only an enthusiast like me could ever get excited by them, and to be truthful most of the attraction is in their rarity on these shores rather than their aesthetics.
But a Snowy Owl. That is a very different story. There's nowhere to go wrong really. An Owl. Huge. Attractive. And rare.
This was only the fourth Norfolk record in the last 100 years. Rumour of one in the area earlier in the week remained just that until a couple had walked into Titchwell visitor centre with a photo. But days had passed and this seemed like a missed opportunity for everyone. Until lunchtime today, when the bird was relocated sat on the edge of Scolt Head island, separated from the North Norfolk coast by a muddy channel. Fortunately it was viewable, albeit distantly, from the coastal path at Burnham Deepdale. Better than that, the bird was quite likely to just sit there until the approach of dusk.
We pulled up at the site and it was a short walk out onto the seawall. The owl was quickly picked up in the telescope, perched on the ground on the far side of the muddy channel. It was livelier than I thought, constantly moving its head up and down and looking around. After about quarter of an hour it flew and it was massive. Luckily it landed in view, but the next flight wasn't long and this time it landed half obscured by the coastal scrub.
No photos I'm afraid. I am reliably informed it was just under 1km away!

This was only the third Snowy Owl I had ever seen. With darkness coming upon us and the bird unlikely to show any better, we headed back to the farm. In terms of time away from the farm and jobs missed, this bird was almost a freebie, though I have been managing to dig up and move some of last years cuttings in the evenings this week.