Summer Owls

When I returned from my trip to Romania earlier this year, apart from having a huge number of images to work through, I was trying to decide where to concentrate my photography efforts during the summer. The summer can be a tricky time for the wildlife photographer particularly in a year of good weather when the best conditions are early morning and and late afternoon evening.

I received a call from my friend Steve who said that a Barn Owl had been showing reasonably regularly during daylight. The owl was hunting in fields at distance from its nest site in an old  barn. An important point as I am always aware that these are a Schedule 1 species. I did 2 or 3 evening sessions, only one of which produced any results I was happy with when there were several close fly-by the owl. A beautiful sight to watch on a summer's evening as the ghostly form quartered over the fields in slow buoyant flight listening for signs of voles  A couple of photographs from this  session are shown below.

I arranged to meet up with Steve one evening and on his arrival he told me that on the way over he had spotted a Little Owl sitting on a farm building that might be worth having more of a look at. The interest radar immediately activated. Little Owls are one species that I have never got round to photographing for a variety of reasons but partly due to them being fairly scarce the immediate vicinity of my home. With a no show by the Barn Owl, we packed up early that evening and headed off to check out the other site.

The Little Owls were nesting in an old, derelict brick t farm building which had a low outbuilding with a slate tiled roof to one site. The building was separated from an adjacent field by a gravel track with a wide grass verge. On arrival an owl was sat in a circular brick opening when Steve had spotted it early in the evening. This turned out to be one of its favourite places to perch and from where it could watch below for any potential prey. So many hours were spent over the next 2 months looking at the owl in this hole doing not a great deal until the sun had dipped sufficiently to stir it into action.

When looking at a new site and species there are lots of factors to consider. You always need to go through an education process of assessing the site in terms of light and photography potential and most importantly learn the behaviour of the animal. What times are they most active? What areas do they frequent most? and so the  list goes on. All of which are processed by my moth filled grey matter to try and determine how and when the best photo opportunities are likely to be presented. So the photographs below are a selection from a couple of evening sessions after work during June where I was learning the habits of these owls. As you can see they are mostly portrait type photos which you tend to take during an initial phase of a mini project. Typically once you have established patterns then you can move on to trying to capture some other types of photographs.

It became quickly obvious that owls has a preference for sitting in the brick window or on the roof and would frequently drop to the lower roof before dropping into an adjacent gravel track or verge to hunt prey.

Catching the very last of the day's light on the roof.

Despite their diminutive size the stare of a Little Owl can be very intense. 

A bird on the track standing to attendion at the sound of the camera shutter having not yet got accustomed to it. 

The birds would spend quite a lot of time on the lower roof which they seemed to be using as a hunting perch.

Before dropping  to the ground below to look for food.

However, these birds are constantly alert for birds and potential predators passing overhead which is hardly surprising given their small size with an adult standing at about 20cms.

Little Owls are an interesting species which are  not native to the UK but were introduced in 1842 by Thomas Powys and a population quickly established. These tiny owls appear to have quite a feisty temperament which is partly enhanced by their scowling and stern appearance. They certainly seem to stand their ground  when frequently mobbed by other birds.  A very endearing species to watch and a pleasure to be with even if it does involve quite long periods of watching  them do apparently very little. One point I noticed very early on is that the iris on those penetrating yellow eyes seem to act independently of each other in terms of dilation according to the quantity of light falling on different sides of the face. This can give them quite an odd appearance at times.  You can see this effect to a degree in this photograph with the left and right pupils being slightly different sizes.

However, their vision is amazing and there ability to spot prey at distance in the grass verge adjacent to the farm building was nothing shot of staggering.

This will be the first of two or three blog posts on these birds as I followed the progress of the adults and their young over a couple of months this summer. So expect to see more of these fascinating owls in some future blog installments.

Hoping for Owls

Not far from my home is a expansive area of salt marsh that forms the outer estuary of the River Dee. This relatively short vegetation, small creeks and ponds provides good habitat for birds but also for a range of small mammals which in turn attracts a variety of birds of prey. This is particularly the case during the winter months when birds like hen harrier and short-eared owls take up temporary home on the marsh to join the residents such as kestrel, barn owl and merlin.

The photography here is really a question of luck. Walking out on the marsh is discouraged to prevent disturbance of the birds and also presents some real dangers in terms of disappearing into the soft muds. So it is a question of finding a location along the footpath the runs along the eastern side where you have a chance of the birds flying close. The only way to get some results is to put in some time on the basis that the longer you are there the greater the chance of a bird flying into photography range. A game of persistence and chance.

Since the start of the year I have been making some occasional visits to try and photograph some of the owls. Barn owls have been doing well locally in recent years due to a lot of effort put in to provide them with nest boxes. These enigmatic birds show wide variability in the timing of the daily hunting. Some individuals will appear in daylight at either end of the day but many are strictly nocturnal so to achieve any success requires the right bird to be found. The patterns of the bird behaviour do change through the year with the birds forced to hunt in daylight during the demanding periods of rearing of their young.

During the last couple of months the Barn Owl I have been trying to photograph has shown nearly nocturnal behaviour with very brief appearances at first and last light when often too little light for photography which has obviously limited success. Several sessions have seen me heading back home with no or only a few photographs that have headed straight to trash. In fact I only really managed to get a few photographs, that I was happy to keep, from one recent session when we had the heavy snowfall. The cold weather probably forced the owls to stay out a little longer than usual. It was nice to get a couple of photographs of the ghostly form of the owl gliding through the light snow that was falling.

I was surprised when the owl appeared behind me, hunting along the verge of the the car park, and landed close by briefly having missed a vole.

The Short-eared owls are an easier prospect for photography as they are one of the few owls that regularly hunt in daylight so the chance of success is much greater. My efforts for these have been hampered to an extent by the dreadful weather we have had at the start of this year. How I have yearned to just have a few moments with the owls driftingclose-by  through some beginning or end of the day sunlight. Oh well you can't have it all.

It has been pleasure just watching these beautiful owls as they hunt in low buoyant flight across the marshes, looking for voles, with the occasional close fly-by allowing a few images to be captured.

I will probably keep putting some time in for the owls in the near future assuming I do not become distracted by other species. Photographing these birds is quite addictive. As always so much to do and such limited time.

Seasons Greetings

This will be a fairly short blog post as I still have an ever increasing list of things to get done before Christmas day tomorrow. The main reason of this post is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and New Year filled with memorable wildlife encounters. I would also like to send you all a big thank you for taking the time to view the blog, for your comments which are always appreciated and for your support.

I was trying to think of what to produce for my e-card this year and really a Christmas card would not be right without some. Looking through my library I have relatively few photos of birds on snow so the choice was a bit limited. So I selected a Fieldfare one of the UK winter migrant thrushes. These birds love to eat berries so I thought the inclusion of the king of berries, a chilled strawberry, would make an appropriate present for the bird.  Obviously I would like to point out, but I suspect you will have already guessed :),  that the card below is a Photoshop creation. You don't tend to find too many Fieldfare wearing Santa hats.

I thought I would also take this moment just to add a couple of images from recent brief encounters. We had a recent cold snap and often such weather tends to displace birds from their normal locations. This is a Snipe that I found on a frosty road side verge taking in some weak winter sun.

A Barn Owl hunting over some farmland in some rare late afternoon winter sun. I hope to photograph more of these enigmatic birds at the start of New Year if the weather is kind.

To finish this post, one of several Short-eared Owls that have taken up winter residence on the local salt marsh.

Have a great day tomorrow and wish you all have a relaxing and happy holiday.