132 Short-eared Owl 



they take their departure.* These movements correspond very 

 closely with the migration of the Woodcock. Indeed, the vulgar 

 name for this Owl in Suffolk (and man}' other parts of England), 

 the Woodcock Owl, is founded upon the close association of the two 

 species in their journey ings to and from the country. The first 

 Owls generally appear — like the Woodcock — early in October, 

 travelling by night, and dropping on our shores while it is still dark. 

 With gales from the east and north-east, which probably baffle 

 and delay them considerably, I have seen birds coming in from the 

 sea during the hours of daylight. They are then generally greatly 

 exhausted, and tumble into the nearest cover that presents itself — 

 the rushes fringing the shore, or the " Bentlings "a few yards further 

 inland. 



On one occasion, I saw an Owl and a ^^'oodcock " make " the 

 land at the same time, and drop on to a rough, grassy bank within 

 twenty yards of each other. As a rule, however, one sees little or 

 nothing of the migration ; one only knows that it has taken place 

 by finding the Owls in abundance on the moorlands, rushy marshes 

 or root-fields, where none were present the previous day. 



The Owls I have actually seen on migration have been single 

 birds or at most a pair ; but there is little doubt that ordinarily 

 they migrate in small parties of ten or a dozen together. Their head- 

 quarters are either big, heathery commons, or rough, ill-kept marshes 

 overgrown with coarse vegetation. Here they usually stop for some 

 months, unless they are grieviously persecuted, or the food supply 

 gives out. The largest flocks reach our coast in November ; from 

 thence onwards the Owls may be found generally distributed, and 

 are frequently flushed by the guns from the root-fields. 



This Owl is essentially a bird of the open moor and marsh 

 differing markedly from its congeners in this and many other respects. 

 Like the other Owls, it is by rights a nocturnal feeder, h'ing hid in 

 some bracken-thicket, furze-bush or patch of rushes during the day 

 and emerging at night to satisfy its hunger. But, while the other 

 Owls are peculiarly helpless and stupid, and tumble into the first 

 shelter they can find, if driven out of their gloomy resting-places 

 into the daylight, the Short-eared Owl does not seem inconvenienced 

 at aU by the brightest sunshine, but skims off in front of the guns 

 with rapid easy flight, for perhaps a couple of hundred yards before 

 again seeking cover. One may even see them on the wing when 

 there has been nothing to disturb them, quartering the ground in 



*E. T. Booth's " Rough Notes," under Short-eared Owl, says : — 



" W'e are also visited in the spring by a few stragglers that have passed the winter on the 

 Continent. On several occasions, usually soon after daylight, I have met with single birds in 

 advanced breeding-plumage within a short distance of the English Channel, both in Kent and 

 Sussex, the date of their appearance . being from the middle to the latter end of April. I 

 particularly noticed that these birds seemed lighter in plumage than those that passed the winter 

 on our shores." 



[This note has reference to the point I raised elsewhere (p. 126) that very few birds are 

 rually resident. The Owls that migrate to our shores in winter, head further north. Those that 

 breed with us have wintered further south. The breeding birds are not residents.] 



