This very lovely little bird has been present in Ryhope, a village just south of Sunderland, for over a week now - I finally managed to get out there today in order to see this species for the first time in the wild; a wild tick which is all the more special given the fact that this individual is the first European Scops Owl recorded from the UK mainland for a decade.
Maybe eight or nine people - as noted above it has been present for a while now, and I believe it was drawing *much* bigger crowds initially this being one of the reasons why I hadn't tried to see it previously, along with the fact that once things settled down a little I ended up only having free time on those days where it wasn't reported and was (incorrectly) believed to have gone.
Moreover, I prefer to pick stuff up on a casual basis and don't go in for "twitching"; this is only the second rare bird I have actively sought out subsequent to sightings being reported, after a Pacific Diver at the start of this year given I have a particular liking for owls, and this one is only 40 minutes on public transport from my flat, I decided it was worth making an exception for this one!
@LaughingDove - it was in plain view, perhaps 20 feet away from me so I only needed my binoculars to get a good look at it, and I had no trouble photographing it. Due to the position of the tree where it was perched in relation to a railway embankment and the public footpath emerging from a tunnel under the railway line, it was able to sit very visibly whilst ensuring it was impossible for anyone to stray close enough to flush it.
