Wednesday 24 February 2010

Owling Again










I have made a few visits recently to observe and photograph a local barn owl. Although the weather has remained bitterly cold, the sun has managed to shine, and has I think encouraged the barn owl to hunt frequently during daylight hours. Most late evenings and nights have been very frosty with temperatures well below zero and I think it must be more pleasurable for the barn owl to hunt whilst the winter sun shines.
The owl usually appears from it's roost around four o'clock and patrols it's territory looking for an easy meal. I have observed it making a kill on two occasions, the first one it took back to it's roost site and the second kill was devoured out of site on the ground. I didn't manage to photograph the kill but did obtain some nice images of the hunting barn owl as it quartered the rough fields and embankments near to it's roost site.
I have shown a selection of the images I managed to obtain. I hope they convey to my readers some of the magic of watching these magnificent birds, as they go about the daily business of survival during the present harsh winter conditions. I also now await favourable conditions to increase my portfolio of barn owl images.I look forward to the summer months when the owls will be on the wing more frequently as they will hopefully by then have a family to feed.

16 comments:

  1. You can't get enough of these Brian and neither can I they really are superb.

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  2. Wow ! I'm just wordless ... what a beauty !
    Thanks for those great picture :)

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  3. Stunning photos. Barn Owls are the 'super models' of British birds.

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  4. Just beautiful light - wow!

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  5. Superb captures Brian. That first one is beautiful.

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  6. Wow fantastic images again Brian.Lets hope theres more encounters of these truly magical birds.

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  7. Beautiful pictures, I am envious:-)

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  8. Thanks everyone for looking and your kind comments.

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  9. You have some well earned and excellent comments on your Barn Owl quest and the resulting superb images Brian. You never seem to fail to impress your followers and understandably so.

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  10. It doesn't get any better that this....these are SUPERB! I am in awe of your talent!!

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  11. Fantastic pictures again Brian. Regards Phil

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  12. Your pictures are fabulous. You have great equipment and the knowledge to use it. I also love owls but do not have pictures of the barn owls. Good luck and keep hunting.

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  13. Must make yet another comment on these images which I keep coming back to see....stunning bird, stunning pictures Brian.

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  14. Pete. Thanks very much for looking in again. I too am very pleased with them but as always I want more!!! So I may be back next week when the weather settles down again. Speak to you soon, take care.

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  15. I've only just seen these Brian and they are absolutely marvelous! I'm struggling to see how you would get better Barn Owl shots than these. Your blog is a treasure chest of beautiful images.

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