Barn Owl Diary (with photos)

[sleipnerofasgard]

I prefer my heroes with their pants on the inside (Unless it's Wonder Woman Or Zena)

[stephen p]

Brilliant news Jeff! and some cracking shots, you must be pleased!

Keep up the good work and keep us up to date.

Steve

[Bettedaviseyes]

Wow...move over Bill Oddie...your time is up
What a fabulous read Jeff ,your photos are amazing how lucky you are to be able to get so close to such beautiful birds and wildlife.

[JeffH]

Originally Posted by pressld2

Amazing shots considering the conditions Jeff!
How do you cope with focusing? Is it all manual? Dave P.

Thanks Dave (pressld2). The light gathering ability of Canon L series lenses never ceases to amaze me - the brightness of the photos produced belies the darkness of the conditions, in much the same way as looking through a high quality pair of binoculars at dusk.

As to your question - no, using my EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS lens I relied on the autofocus for all the shots I've shown (it was too dark to focus manually, especially with my eyes). I did, however, make use of two of my 30D's custom functions - expanded ISO (to 3200) and mirror lock-up - and just kept firing away with my camera mounted on a tripod and using a cable remote release to minimise shake.

Needless to say there were a great many deletions due mainly to one or other of the birds moving and the very slow shutter speeds I was forced to use.

Eventually though even the autofocus couldn't cope with the darkness and so I crawled out of the rear of my hide on hands and knees and crept away into the darkness/undergrowth leaving the youngsters undisturbed.

"I prefer my heroes with their pants on the inside (Unless it's Wonder Woman Or Zena)" - nice one Frank (sleipnerofasgard ) - I'm so relieved

and thanks for your kind words Steve (stephen p)

Jeff

[JeffH]

UPDATE - 14th August

I'm pleased to report that after much stretching of wings and legs, and as anticipated in my post of the 10th August, all three youngsters have started to fly tonight

The last few evenings have either been wet or very windy and apart from a couple of short spells outside their nestbox the birds have stayed in there.

However, the weather this evening has been much better with only a gentle breeze, a lovely sunset and very good evening light.

They came out of the box much earlier at just after 8pm when the light was still quite good, allowing me to get away with ISO of only 1600 and shutter speeds as high as 1/60th

After about 15 minutes of stretching the first bird made a short flight down onto a long perch I've placed between two trees and just beneath the nestbox. The other two followed in quick succession and then the smallest made a flight of approx 8 metres onto another perch I've placed nearer my hide. Again the other two followed and all three of them spent the next 50 minutes or so flitting between the various perches and the nestbox, obviously enjoying their new found flying skills (and so was I )

It was an absolute joy to watch them and I fired off some 250 shots, though unfortunately the light simply wasn't good enough to catch them in flight.

Here's just a couple of them - I'll process/edit the others over the weekend and include more in my next update -





Jeff

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REMINDER
The Barn Owl is afforded the highest degree of legal protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. If you “intentionally or recklessly” disturb a Barn Owl whilst trying to photograph it “in, on, at or near” the nest or whilst it has dependent young, and without the necessary Licence from Natural England, you may be committing a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to 6 months.
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[pressld2]

They're absolutely beautiful Jeff! (The birds and the photos.) What a wonderful thing to witness. As always, thank you so much for taking the time to share the experience with us.

Dave P.

[stephen p]

Great news Jeff, must of been great seeing them fly for one of the first times in the life.

The photo of the 2 is stunning, i have a great love for these birds.

Out of interest mate, what camera are you using?

Cheers,

Steve

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by JeffH

*****************************************
REMINDER
The Barn Owl is afforded the highest degree of legal protection under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. If you “intentionally or recklessly” disturb a Barn Owl whilst trying to photograph it “in, on, at or near” the nest or whilst it has dependent young, and without the necessary Licence from Natural England, you may be committing a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 and/or a prison sentence of up to 6 months.
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Slightly off topic , but can i ask how "easy" the process was for obtaining your schedule one licence for barn owls jeff ? - I ask because i have access to an estate with several breeding pairs of barnies (7 fledglings from three nests this year) and am looking at getting a licence for next year.

I have been schedule one licenced before - for stone curlew - but i remember that being a major faff and wondered if the process was easier with species like barn owls , which while rare are not quite so critically endangered.

[Kayleigh]

They are just stunning birds, you are so lucky to be able to get this close to them. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pics with us.
These are my favourite birds I was lucky enough to have one fly close to my parked car with a vole in its beak.
I saw it go to ground and pulled in, then it flew right past my windscreen. I was on my way to to work at 8:30am of course I had no camera.

[rlchew]

Absolutely stunning stuff Jeff.

You are so fortunate to have the opportunity to photograph and diarise 2 such charismatic species .... Barn Owl and Kingfisher.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted.

Richard