Short-Eared Owl Winter — Orkney Mainland

Each October through March, the open moorland and rough grassland of Orkney Mainland hosts one of Britain's finest short-eared owl concentrations, with birds from Scandinavia and northern Scotland augmenting the resident population to create a landscape where five to ten owls hunting simultaneously in the afternoon light is a routine occurrence rather than a memorable exception. The short-eared owl's daytime hunting habits make it the most observable British owl by far, and the Orkney birds — fuelled by the island's exceptional short-tailed vole population — range openly over the agricultural plain south of Kirkwall and the moorland of Harray and Birsay in long buoyant quartering flights that bring them within metres of roadside observers who simply park and watch. The owls' cat-like facial disc, yellow eyes, and the slow deep wingbeats of their low hunting flight are fully apparent at close range, and watching a bird drop suddenly onto a vole in the long grass just 30 metres away is one of Britain's most thrilling affordable wildlife moments. The same Orkney fields also host hen harriers in their ringtail plumage, merlin hunting small birds, and occasionally rough-legged buzzards from Scandinavia, creating a winter raptor assemblage unmatched anywhere else in the British Isles. The Ring of Brodgar and standing stones visible from the owl hunting grounds add a 5,000-year human context to the winter wildlife landscape.