After Dinner Snooze

I was photographing this fine Short-eared Owl in flight yesterday when it suddenly did a fast U-turn having seen a vole in the rough grass quite close to me.

The Owl dived in with its wings held well back to avoid damage and the fact that it stayed down confirmed that it had captured the Vole in its lethal talons

The Owl worked its talons into the vole until it was dead before transferring it head first into its wide open mouth for a down in one swallow that was assisted by closing its eyes and pressing downwards with its eye socket muscles on the vole to aid forcing it on down the hatch.

With its short ears projecting the Shortie then balled up to take a twenty minute 'After Dinner Snooze' while digesting the luckless Vole

  

I carried on watching this Owl for a further thirty minutes or so and my next blog shows it waking ,preening and wing stretching prior to it taking-off and carrying on with another daytime hunt.

Cool Kestrel and a wise old Owl

A Short-eared-Owl flies into a rough grass field to hunt and as it does so it sees a female Kestrel perched prominently on a stone wall.

Kestrels in this area have been seen attacking Owls that have just taken prey so this Owl decides to see off the Kestrel before hunting.

Unbeknown to the Owl the Kestrel has just taken and dispatched its own Vole and is not in the mood to be going anywhere.

The owl sets a direct low line of attack towards the kestrel which turns to face its aggressor with talons at the ready and the owl back off with a pass.

The Owl decided to get on with its hunting and was diving into the long grasses within minutes.
The look on its face tells you that it has made a kill as it checks around for any prey robbers before taking off to put more space between itself and the Kestrel before consuming the Vole.

So all ended up well for the wise old Owl but not of course for the female Vole which by the looks of its suckled teats had a family of young out there as well.  Nature is not always Kind !!