Short Eared Owl, Round III- Undisclosed site, Cheshire

With shorties I feel i've almost 'made it' with Owls, and yesterday I got my best shots yet. I could never tire of doing shorties, they're just such wonderfully dynamic birds. I have seen a fair few birds now, but these ones were by far and away the most obliging, although these shots took five gruelling hours in the wind, rain and without gloves too! The oportunity can be attributed to Mike Nesbitt, and these are really 'his' owls, he's worked so hard with them since november and I've just piggybacked on the back of that. Still, here are my offerings...

Off he went, quartering the field looking for any unfortunate rodents in his path...

...and in for a closer look right in front of me, stooping in on his prey...!

...and a composite of the owl going in for the kill...

...and onto a post! Right in front of me, looking for where the shutter sound came from...



...Found you...!                                                                                                                                            



What an awesome bird, completely brilliant experience!                                                                                



Short Eared Owl, Round II- I said I'd be back...

First day out since my break. Wanted to visit my site in North Wales (well I say 'my' site..) but Arriva decided that sunday was the best day to pospone all trains in that direction. Great. I love public transport. Turns out this wasn't as bad as first thought, nor was the ensuing snow. I got up Saturday to find the stuff falling thick and fast around me. Trains were cancelled nationwide, I almost lost heart! However, a kind offer from a certain Mr Cookson (who's website can be found on the right of the page) saw me heading out Lancashire-bound, admittedly in pea-soup fog! Still, as I got out this cleared slightly. This continued until I had a clear sky. Things were looking up. As I arrived an owl was hunting, but soon perched. A stealthy approach revealed this rather interesting looking individual...



But soon he/she was off on the hunt, so was I...



...but with a bit of photoshop this looks relatively good...



A rather enjoyable session, bring on Round III!

Short Eared Owl- Round 1

I set off from Manchester this weekend with clear skys overhead and snow crisp underfoot. I was looking for the most elusive of predators, the owl. The owls have a good year every couple of years, and this year they've exploded in terms of population, but not bodily; an exploding owl wouldn't make a brilliant shot. I headed to the usual spot in North Wales. These birds are fearless, but not stupid. If you walkup to them, they'll fly off, but if you wait they'll come closer, especially since they hunt over all the fields regularly. However, since the light was not good for photos and the birds were too far off, I left with some reasonable shots but not quite as close-up as i'd like. In the words of arnie, I'll be back...