For a long time Long-eared Owl and White-tailed Eagle were my "holy grails", being the last two British breeding birds I needed to see...
Everytime I ventured up to North-west Scotland for the White-tailed Eagles was a pointer for the weather to turn foul, I visited Skye, Wester Ross and the Wintering site at Gruinard to no avail spending hours in the pouring rain waiting for my target, but luckily I put this "bogey" to rest getting excellent views of an adult at Gruinard Island in beatuiful sunshine this this spring.
Still its a 10 hour+ drive from Nottingham to the White-tailed Eagles so perhaps its understandable that i struggled to get to grips with them. Less forgivable is Long-eared Owl, spending much of my winters birding in Lincolnshire and East Anglia surely it was only a matter of time before I connected with one?
But no, and multiple visits to the Boston Roost site brought no results, perhaps they didn`t really exist or were figments of other birders imaginations. I saw the Snowy Owl at Felixstowe in Winter 2001 but still Long-eared Owl eluded me....
I thought my luck was going to be in when I twitched the Pallid Harrier at Elmley, a breeding Pair were being seen frequently in scrub near the reserve centre, but no!
I finally, finally caught up with Long-eared Owl this spring, visiting a roost after I had seen the Sardinian Warbler at Holme next-the Sea, and what do you know...after enjoying fantastic views of a perched bird...what did I see lurking deeper in the scrub? You`ve guessed it...another one! Just like buses eh, wait ages for one and another comes along right behind it!!