Surprises at Tandlehill country park.

Not the best day for a walk in the local park, with cold toes and noses we ventured to the local park as a break from staying indoors (cabin fever sets in very quickly lately!).

This is a park on the edge of the 'burbs' that we have visited over the last 30+ years. I've made a little mental list of the species we've seen and was pretty pleased to spot a half dozen Bullfinches recently for the first time in the park.

My wife was hoping to see Bullfinches again and I'm keen to spot Goldcrest in the pines stands. Goldcrest are "new" to me, I now realise that I've probably assumed that the little bird darting about is just a blue tit and not bothered to check with the bins. I must have missed lots.

After an hour in the pines and sapling plantation we had only the usual sightings. We walked by a stand of Larches, still bare but with some buds forming. A small bird, (Yay!! Goldcrest ) was busy in amongst the twigs. A great sighting for me!

We were making our way away from the Larches when we heard lots of small bird activity where we had just been looking. We quietly retraced our steps and saw lots of small birds very active in one Larch...
We saw (probably) the same Goldcrest, a pair of bullfinches, various blue/great tits. Feeling really pleased, I was watching a group of long tailed tits when my wife said "There's a owl in that tree!". She said it again before I even thought about the possibility that it could really be an owl. I had her point it out to me, expecting to see a stump of a broken bough, but no! There, exactly where I was already looking, but deeper into the tree was an absolutely real and very handsome owl, next to the tree trunk.
The owl had white feathery rimmed "ears", big orange eyes and a beak that was buried into its chest. Its body was a sort of spotty grey with washes of brown and fawn in it. It really looked like a tree trunk of the beeches, but not quite the colour of the Larch trunk.

We watched it for several minutes until it moved and flew off back into the woods, accompanied by a similar sized bird which we hadn't seen in the tree (a pair?).

We think it can only be a Long Eared owl, although those shown in our books don't seem to show so much grey plumage and don't have such pale rimmed ears.
I wonder if they have some variation in plumage in the seasons?

Anyway, a wonderful hour's birding and full and complete relief from cold noses and toes.
A lifer and some firsts for that location! . It's going to be a great year!