00:00So hello again my friends to another lovely evening in the Oxfordshire countryside and to
00:09another video that's not sponsored by Squarespace or anyone else for that matter. So what am I up
00:19to? I think this is about the eighth time now I've gone out. So far unsuccessfully looking
00:31for owls in particular. And each and every time I've gone out I haven't managed to come
00:42back with anything, not even the briefest of sightings, which has been a little bit frustrating
00:48to say the least. So with any luck that might be remedied this evening. We shall see. So
01:00what I'm hoping for is that as the evenings get longer, I mean this evening we're going
01:11to have sunset supposedly at 8 o'clock. It gives me all the more better chance at spotting
01:22something. And also as the days progress it's more likely that they might have chicks on the
01:37nest and be needing to feed more. So that's the hope and that's the reasoning why I keep
01:49coming out and the hope that I will spot one. And this evening I'm headed up to a field that
01:59I had spotted on one of my first walks around here, which was a small field amongst a bunch
02:12of paddocks, horse paddocks, which has been left to grow wild a little bit. So my hope is
02:19that it'll present a decent habitat for the kind of animals that barn owls and the like like to
02:33prey upon. So I'm just coming through directly to those fields. Okay. So we've just come out
02:48onto the field which you can see behind me here. And you can't really tell from this distance, but it
03:05is full of potential for voles and mice, field
03:16mice and that sort of thing, which I shall show you in a minute hopefully. Not the mice themselves, but
03:25their little burrows. There's also, I think, on the other side there, a warren, a rabbit warren. So there's going
03:33to be plenty of rabbits as well, which could potentially attract a fox or two.
03:41So that is the plan, is to find myself a location up here, set the camera up with a tripod,
03:53hide it behind the camouflage gauze that I have, and sit it out and wait.
04:02So
04:36Okay, so I've got myself all set up back there. I don't know if you can see the hide. Just
04:44Just a little tree down there.
04:56And I shall wait it out in this field, at the edge of this field to see what happens along.
05:02Now, what I was talking to you before is, you can see here, there's one I found.
05:11See that little hole just here. Now that is the hole of, and you can see little passages that they
05:21make, just through the grass.
05:28Now that is either a mouse or a vole. And the field is full of these, as well as rabbit
05:37ones, which I will show you over here.
05:43So my thinking is that this is a fantastic field for prey species of owls, in particular barn owl.
05:58And so I'm hoping that I might get lucky enough to see one during the daylight, as the days are
06:06getting longer now.
06:07You can see here, this is a rabbit warren.
06:11You can see where they've been digging in the bank here.
06:14And behind there.
06:17And lots and lots here.
06:25Ooh, there's a lovely butterfly as well.
06:29So yeah, there's, although I doubt they'll, unless there's baby, baby rabbits running around in the field, I doubt an
06:35owl would pick one of those.
06:38Because they're quite large.
06:42But there's, like I said, lots of vols and mice in this field.
06:50So with any luck, we might catch an owl hunting over this field.
06:57And what I will do as well is set the camera up, if I can find a camera trap, trail
07:02cam, at a decent spot, to keep an eye over this field for the next couple of weeks.
07:13And I shall check in on it occasionally, to see if we found anything.
07:17So whilst it's quiet, and I'm not going to be disturbing anything, I think I'll do that now.
07:26So let's go and find a decent spot.
08:02Okay, so I'm sat in the blind now.
08:06I struggled to get the trail cam up into a decent location.
08:12The bushes along the edge of the field here are just full of thorns, and getting access to the trees
08:20that are just behind them is almost impossible.
08:22It is impossible.
08:23And I actually had to put it on the main branch, the main trunk of the bush, and clear a
08:34little hole through the branches for the trail cam to actually see out onto the field.
08:41But in the process, I got myself full of holes.
08:47Anyway, I'll probably only leave it up a few days, because it is a little bit sketchy of a location
08:54for it.
08:55So I'll see what happens, I'll see how it goes basically.
08:59I'll leave it up there for a couple of days, and see if it records anything, any movement at all,
09:05and play it by ear.
09:07And in the meantime, I'm sat in the blind.
09:11Again, this location isn't the best, but this field hasn't got much to offer, in terms of having a decent
09:19vantage point over the field, and offering a decent point in which to set up a blind.
09:29So this will have to do, I guess, and hopefully it will be good enough, if something should come along,
09:36for me to be able to get some photographs of it.
09:39Anyway, we'll see. We'll see.
09:42So I'm just going to relax for a bit, and wait for the sun to go down, and have a
09:47cup of tea.
09:48I shall catch up with you all in a little while.
09:54Bye.
10:51It's about 45 minutes or so to go before sunset, and nothing so far, really, other than a couple of
11:12red kites.
11:15It's a lovely sunset.
11:40It's just poking through a couple of clouds.
11:47It's diffusing its light, and it's quite lovely.
11:52So yeah, a couple of red kites came along.
11:55What else?
12:01And a female pheasant as well had a wander through the field before she was spooked by a walker.
12:16Unfortunately, most of the places that I've discovered around here, although they do have wildlife, they've also got lots of
12:22people walking through them, especially now with the lockdown.
12:27And in the middle of the week, when you wouldn't, I guess, not normally expect to find many people out
12:33and about in these parts, there's quite a few people walking around now, out for their daily exercise.
12:43So, yeah, it's a little bit frustrating, even here, just because I'm very near the path where I've set up
12:54here.
12:56And the guy came with his hunting dog, but he was training up and throwing the bait out into the
13:04field for him to run and get.
13:08So, yeah, still, you never know, something might still come along.
13:20So, the sun literally just dipped over the horizon, and it looked absolutely magnificent, beautiful.
13:31Red boar, big red boar, it was absolutely stunning.
13:40But, absolutely nothing has made an appearance.
13:48Not even the rabbits have come out to play.
13:56So, I have about half an hour, I guess, more light. Usable light, that is.
14:03And then I shall have to call it quits.
14:06It's just gone.
14:09It's almost eight. It's three minutes to eight.
14:13So, I have until about 8.30, I'm guessing.
14:17And then I'll pack up and go home. I'll switch the trail cam on.
14:25And see if that records anything overnight.
14:31And I'll come back in a couple of days to check on it.
14:50I'll give it just a little bit more time. And then we'll call it quits.
14:57Okay, so I had one rabbit come out, poke his head in the distance, up above the grass.
15:04Again, very distant shot. Hardly any light at all, you know, left.
15:10So, I'm going to pack up, switch the trail cam on, and head back home for dinner.
15:32So, I'm going to pack up, switch the trail cam on, and head back home for dinner.
15:33So, I'm going to pack up, switch the trail cam on, and head back home for dinner.
