Early winter birding.......Smew and SEOs

5 Dec -A successful trip to CWP area - my hunch about Smew arriving on the easterly winds was correct, as a redhead was on pit 30, very flightly so probably new in. At Shorncote, the birding was sadly overshadowed by my finding a dead Barn Owl, but a good range of birds - 3 Snipe on the floods, a Grey Wagtail and a fem Stonechat, 100+ Fieldfares and Redwings, 2 Chiffchaffs, 3 Water Rails and 4 Cetti's Warblers. 14 Song Thrushes flushed from the reeds and 15+ Reed Buntings seen. The floods are building for the winter. At Blakehill, a report of a Short-eared Owl last w/e saw me visit at dusk on the off-chance, Dave Soons already there, and we saw a Barn Owl at 4.15 then unbelievably 2 Short-eared Owls, flying actively and calling as well as hunting......a Blakehill tick and only a mile from my house! Exciting indeed if they stay for the winter. Photo taken last week at Hawling, Glos, JM.