Tyto alba

I have just had a wonderful five minutes watching one of these. First I saw it flying around the old wriggly tin barn, about half a mile away across the field, and then it moved closer and started working up and down the line of yellow dry grass at the edge of the dyke (drainage ditch).

Nothing else flies with quite that lazy wing movement. It went down a couple of times, but I couldn't see that it had caught anything, A few times I thought it had perched in one of the trees, but it hadn't - it was simply perching on the air - there is a strong wind today, and it was able to adjust and stand still. Not hovering like a kestrel, but just still as though the air was solid.

Then it flew toward the house and passed us by. It came so close that I was able to see it's lovely heart-shaped face.