Wiveton Church 12th May 2012

Wiveton Church 12th May 2012

Before we left the Cley Marshes visitor centre this afternoon we enquired of a chap behind the desk where we might be likely to see any Owls and he suggested a couple of places for Barn Owls, the closest of which was over the fields by Wiveton Church so we decided we would go there that evening at dusk. We returned to the hotel and had a drink in the bar where the Wiveton site was also recommended by the hotel owner. As it happened we decided to eat at another pub in Cley, the Three Swallows, and we ended up in conversation with the landlord and he also recommended Wiveton as a sure-fire Barn Owl location. With three independent recommendations we felt we were in with a fair chance so after we had eaten, at around 8.30pm, we headed off down the road to Wiveton. It was still light but by the time we got there we thought it would be about the right light level.

We were told to stand on the bridge over the river just before the church but before we had even got there I looked out over the fields and coming towards us was a beautiful Barn Owl – we hadn’t even had to wait for it to appear or for it to get dark. It glided around for a while and then disappeared into the woods in the distance. Our first Barn Owl ! We waited for about twenty minutes at it got darker and again it appeared from far off to the left and it came over the river again and quickly disappeared back into the distance. We waited again and by this time it was dark. After about another half hour we gave up. We would have wished for longer views but for the minimal effort we had to put in this was a great reward. It was back to the pub to tell the landlord that he had given us good advice. After a full day at Cley NWT reserve and now this we felt we had had a great days birding.