Plump

It was looking as though it might be an owling kind of day, but I’m still struggling to shake off my New Year virus, and I just wasn’t feeling the love for it, so I went out for lunch with R instead. I suspect I’m now quite a bit plumper than I was this morning.

This evening Winterwatch featured the owl field and its various residents – though without specifying the exact location, I’m happy to say. If you’re in the UK you can watch here, from 36m20s to 42m06s. Interestingly, the owl the cameraperson captured landing on a wall is one I’ve also photographed perched, and it seems to have a problem with its right eye. Owls can dilate and contract their pupils independently to improve the accuracy of their vision, but in this individual the right eye seems to be turned inwards, with the pupil permanently dilated. This sounds potentially catastrophic for a predator that hunts by sight as well as by sound, but from what I’ve seen the owl is coping perfectly well, and its main problem, along with the rest of its group, is the number of Corvids and Kestrels that constantly harass it in order to steal its prey.