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After a good lemming year in Scandanavia, good numbers of Short eared owls arrived in the UK to spend the winter. Birds have been recorded in Borth, Tregaron Bog, and near Bwlch locally. Ray Woods found two at Gamrhiw, Llanwrthwl last week and birds have since been found up the Elan Vally (near Pont ar Elan). Over Christmas a bird was picked up injured on the new road near Cwmbach, south of Newbridge. Its well worth checking out our upland grassland areas for these birds. They favour long grass or sedgy boggy areas and often perch on fence posts. They also actively hunt in daylight. Today I watched 2 hunting on the saddle below Y Gamrhiw, Llanwrthwl – in the area near Rhos Saeth Maen. The easiest way to access this is via the minor road from Llanwrthwl that leads towards a dead end below Gamrhiw. Either walk down the stone track that continues from here for 400m and look to the area on the left or if you are really lucky you may get distant views from the car parked at the end of the tarmac. grid ref SN954614. It would be good to find more in our area this winter.

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