Short Eared Owls.
A "lock down" product....
This years action with the Short Eared Owls has been slow, what with "lock-down", there just seems to be a general shortage of birds around this winter. As, any of you who know me, where it come`s to owls, that is my first love.
When I was given information regarding the location of three birds, the temptation was too great to resist, gear packed - gone........The owls were located in a 255 acres of what is called "regenerated green space" a drive of around an hour and three quarters saw me on site, luckily, a good friend of mine had provided me details of the exact location at the site, as can be seen from the image below, it could have been a "needle in a haystack job" otherwise.
The birds normally made an appearance anytime after around 1pm, before lockdown, I had made a number of visits to this site, only to be let down once with a no show, but on this particular day, someone was smiling at me, good light, no real wind, and three birds up in the air.
The owl in the shot below, came in so close, I did have to actually
"duck" as it came in so low over my head, I could nearly reach out and touch it - it seemed to want to pose for the camera.
For quite a while it seemed more than happy just to sit and have it`s picture taken, how a bird of that size could balance upon such a small branch is quite a feat.
The action continued unabated throughout the afternoon, with in excess of 300 images being taken, , quite a number of other photographers by now had arrived, sorry to say, a number of these were, "bird chasers", wherever the bird went, they chased it with their lens, chasing the birds around like this is not good for them.
The action culminated with the image above, the owl, being backlit against the setting sun, I have titled this shot "Angel", for me, it was my favourite shot of the day, soon after this image was taken, the sunset behind a hill taking with it the last light of the day.
I know the owls are still on site at present, but due to current restrictions, at present I cannot return....
Until the next time...
