Owls, bats etc

I did a fair bit of birding at the weekend. I won't go into all the details (it involved the finer points of gull ID, among other things), but some interesting snippets were:

• As I watched three or maybe four Short-eared Owls at their regular wintering spot at Great Easton, there was the unmistakable hooting of a Tawny Owl. After much scanning with the scope, it was possible to pick out two Tawnys in a nearby tree, sitting tight. One was noticeably much darker than the other. I've been in my current house for getting on nine years, and hear Tawnys on a regular basis, but I've never seen one in daylight, so two was a thrill.
• At Swithland Reservoir, there was a bat hawking for insects in broad daylight (about 3pm). No idea what kind, I'm afraid.
• Also at Swithland, I saw one of the resident Peregrines drop like a stone - the trademark stoop. I say trademark, but they usually seem to use a much shallower hunting dive there. This was practically vertical - and my heart (or maybe it was my stomach) rose to meet it.