Quite unusual for Tawny Owls to call during the day.
Saw this a couple of weeks back; totally forgot ro share it here:
Fucking amazing picture !
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We have had a lot of it for a while. Early evening. Full sun.
They flit between the trees behind and are really hard to catch a look at.
Today they have been swooping low across my garden. Wonderful sight. When I posted the earlier photo I saw two emerge from a laurel, although one went into cover.
They make a racket, and I can usually hear a series of calls from various places in one direction. Hoots and shrieks. 100% Tawny from the calls and the close look I got today with the bins from maybe ten metres away on a tree
I’m not doubting the ID just saying it’s unusual during the day. Early evening I can understand.
Useless fact incoming
Males “hoot” and females have a “kivvik” high pitched call. Hence the t’whit t’whoo story book description, which is actually kivvik hoo hoo (female calling and male answering)
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I know little about them other than they all over and LOUD.
The afternoon into evening calls have been going on for a few weeks. The earlier times are all from the bank behind my house. It’s as if they are calling from where they are nesting.
Once it’s dark they just move between the bigger trees and really make a racket. Then they move round the larger trees and are clearly out hunting.
The calling makes sense now. You can hear the stereo effect as the calls move about.
The male’s call is actually quite easy to replicate and they will very often answer, used to do it regularly back in Durham.
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I’ve got some loud recordings of the din. May try and bait them.
Ok, but don’t do it too frequently and definitely not once we reach Autumn, they’ll be reinforcing territories and beginning their long courtship period prior to Spring breeding.
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Hmm don’t think I’d ever contemplate baiting 
I just mean see if the recording of the call has a reaction. Bait as in tempt them with it.
To be honest I leave them well alone. Enjoy watching although it’s almost impossible to see them at night despite knowing exactly where they are.
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Night vision scope. I used to use one to watch Long-eared Owls which are strictly nocturnal hunters.
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Wonder if it’s something to do with the oddly changeable weather, but one of our tawnies has been doing some daylight shouting, mid to late afternoon, as well as late small hours 4-5am lots of come-find-me contact calling where male and female gradually home-in on one another; locally they’re usually busiest around midnight, but August I normally don’t hear them at-all…
What I do know is that everything was late here this year. Whimbrel, Red-necked Phalarope, Dunlin, all arrived late, bred late and other than the weather patterns I can’t think of any other reason.
The natural world is changing with the climate and I’m not sure it will be for the better.
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Word. Some species will simply shift their range, some are not gonna make it… 
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Range extension has been happening for a good few years. Little Egret, Avocet, Great White Egret, Spoonbill, Black-winged Stilt, Bee eater (I could go on) were ALL scarce or rare birds 25 years ago. They all breed in the UK now.
Climate change has not only made conditions here more favourable for these species BUT it has made conditions on their usual breeding grounds inhospitable. Just look up how Europe’s premier wetland site - Donana, Spain - is almost bereft of avian life.
We’re fucking the planet. I despair 
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Fuck me! I did not know that! Shit-the-fucking-bed. I went there several times in the early '80s - ironically nothing to do with living wildlife, but for the amazing Pliocene fossils, but you couldn’t visit and not discover the wildlife reserves! Blew my mind the (to me) exotica that lived there in huge numbers. I’m honestly (and perhaps, stupidly) shocked to hear it’s all but gone… Fucking hell.
We really have broken this planet…
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Indeed
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Fucking tragic, no hyperbole, that was a very special place.
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Yeah, when I last visited Donana (2007-ish) the Flamingo flock was one of the most impressive avian spectacles on the continent. They’re gone now, all of them.
Fucking tragic just about nails it.
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That’s some article. we really know how to fuck up the planet