A bit of luck ....

I really like the composition of this image of a Short Eared Owl, however I have to '' fess up '' and admit it was purely by chance !

It was taken over a set aside field surrounded by hedgerows, one wing of the bird is over the foreground colour and the other over the much darker background.

The end result is a sort of '' lost and found '' effect.

Magestic Owl ......

I love photographing Owls ( It normally involves being out late afternoon near sunset )  and in winter good light and a clear sky means sub freezing temperatures and numb extremities.

Still, its all worth while to get a shot like this Short Eared Owl over a local set aside field, in parliamentary terms, my vote is that the eyes have it.

Its that time of year ..... The butcher bird .......... and the Short Eared Owl.

Anticipation !

We are getting to the time of year that, hopefully, will see some passage migrant Great Grey Shrikes arriving in the country and County of Northamptonshire, even better if some remain for the winter.

Similarly Short Eared Owls are on the move with moorland birds moving down to lower elevations and migrant birds arriving for the winter.

Nowadays all things are not black and white ..........

I think that black and white is a very nice medium so I had a bit of a play about today to see if it really works or enhances bird pics.

This is one of my favourite Short Eared Owl images.

I converted it to B & W with my Nikon View 2 software, Hmmm ........... I'm not too sure that it works for me but it does have a different dimension and visual impact.

This is the original image as I took it at Blueberry Farm, Maidwell from the '' influx '' we had a couple of years ago.

I think that the B & W shot is a bit cold compared to full colour ( and I can tell you that when I took it on a hard winters day in late afternoon light it was indeed very cold ! around  -5 degrees C).

I need convincing that it is worth doing a bit more work on this subject.

All comments and observations from viewers of this blog page are greatly appreciated and most welcome !.

The following are examples of shall we say ..... less successful photo opportunities with Short Eared Owls. They had the potential to be great ..... could have, should have, might have  ...... 

                         This guy suddenly appeared and nearly knocked the hood off my lens. 

                                                                           What a frame filler

     

Short Eared Owl - Blueberry Farm, Northants.

These shots were taken just over two years ago when there was a huge influx of European Short Eared Owls into the UK.

Apparently, following an excellent breeding season in continental Europe on the  the back of a high vole population, European territories became pressurised and large numbers of this bird were reported to be arriving in the country over the East coast.

Here in Northamptonshire a local farm with large fields of set-aside ( the owners are members of the Hawk and Owl Trust and actively manage the farm to provide suitable habitat for raptors ) became a focus for these birds with a maxima in the mid-thirties.

Short Eared Owls will hunt in Daylight making them great subjects for photography.

They were very confiding,  and there were so many of them, that you really didn't know which bird to point your camera at first !.