Saturday 20 December 2008

Another Owl Prowl

Owls are a bit addictive. They are beautiful, mysterious and the fact that they take a bit of effort to see in the evening makes them them top of the list wherever you are birding. There are around 230 species in the world, some very rare with restricted ranges, but the Owl with the biggest range is the Barn Owl.

There were at least three out tonight and I took pictures of them hunting in the twilight.The first one I saw was at 19 minutes to three, when a Marsh Harrier was also distantly hunting, but I didn't get into range until ten minutes later.

They patrolled up and down a rough area of ground.

Unlike many owl the eyes are dark.

This ghostly shape came towards me before finding something more interesting.

Hovering when they saw prey in the grass.

Then a head first plummet to the ground.

I couldn't see if it had caught anything but it sat on the ground for a while.

A second bird came by but there was no interaction between them. After I'd packed my camera away there was a good chase between a Barn Owl and a Carrion Crow, but to late for me to record. More photos here.

2 comments:

Graham James said...

And there was me thinking that you couldn't better the SE Owl photos, Tony. Terrific stuff!

Kingsdowner said...

Marvellous stuff - a real masterclass!