Owl Be Seeing You

It has been some time since I had an addition to my blog.  The very wet weather in November had prevented me from venturing forth with the big lens. With December came more settled but colder weather and as I write the first snows of Winter are here with very frosty nights but bright and sunny by day. I was therefore tempted out this week in pursuit of owls and harriers that I had heard about in the Bowland Fells.
On my first visit I did see both hen harrier and short eared owl but very distant and certainly not within camera range. I returned again to find that both species were not about, probably they were feeding elsewhere in the vast expanse of moorland where I had been searching. However all was not lost and on a brief walk I discovered a hillside barn where a little owl was enjoying the afternoon sunshine. This sunshine was brief lived as frequent and heavy snow showers were being driven in on a bitterly cold easterly wind. I quickly grabbed the camera and managed some decent shots from behind an adjoining stone wall. The owl left the barn and posed nicely for me on another stone wall and made a nice composition in the brief sunny interlude between snow showers. I was well pleased with the results and left for home as the weather worsened and brought in the first significant snow to the Bowland Fells.
I may hopefully return before Christmas to see if there are any Short Eared Owls or Harriers about and may have some more images to upload but if not I would like to take this opportunity to wish my readers a Very Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for the new decade in 2010 and many thanks for following what I hope has been an interesting account of my adventures in the Lancashire countryside. The images above show the little owl and the surrounding fell country of this very beautiful and very special part of Lancashire.