Another Barn Owl

colincurry · #1 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 07:00 PM

The road into Fen Drayton Lakes is regularly patrolled by a barn owl. In the past, I have biked out there obscenely early in the morning and been rewarded with fairly distant sightings at times, and at other times, no view at all.

About three weeks ago, Cordless Dave took us out there in his car and we did not see the owl at all.

Nothing daunted, we repeated the exercise on Saturday morning before sunrise. It was pretty dark and very cold, with the sun eventually trying to break through the clouds. I was glad to be in a mobile hide out of the wind.

Great excitement when we saw the owl sitting on a post. Just in position when a car tore by and frightened the bird. However, it circled round and alighted on another fence further down the road. We managed some shots before it took off and winged away across the fields.

We drove slowly along the road when I spotted the owl cross the road about 100 yards ahead. Creeping along, we saw the owl perched in a small beech tree a little off the road in quite a gloomy spot. These shots show this

He then crossed the road and perched on a fence post in slightly better light

He moved on further down the road, posing again; but we decided that we had disturbed him enough and left him in peace.

This is quite the closest I have ever been to one of these magnificent birds. Really a delight and a privilege.

Colin

rossy · #2 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 07:12 PM

cracking photos colin of my favourite owl well done , rossy

shenk1 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 07:33 PM

Would the ring info be useful to any society?
I'm not trying to sound daft but a greenfinch comes to our garden regularly with a ring on and I'm trying to get a photo of it but am stumped what to do with the info if I get it

Cheers shenk1

riggy · #4 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 07:36 PM

Excellent shots far better than the one's I got.

Paul

colincurry · #5 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by riggy

Excellent shots far better than the one's I got.

Paul

Paul

It was so close - and sitting still, not flying around. A sitting owl, in fact

Colin

pammosley · #6 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 07:48 PM

Wonderful Colin, I dream of this

nigel_b · #7 (**permalink**) 07-03-2010, 07:55 PM

Great shots! What equipment were they taken with and what was the light like? Superb results whatever.

geordie graham · #8 (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 05:51 PM

Brilliant photo`s Colin I am so jealous.

Graham

sunnydale · #9 (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 06:04 PM

A lovely series of shots Colin. Lucky you and well done

colincurry · #10 (**permalink**) 08-03-2010, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nigel_b

Great shots! What equipment were they taken with and what was the light like? Superb results whatever.

I used a canon 40D and 100-400 lens. It was a dull early morning around 7 am - not the best of light. I used ISO 1600 f5.6 on the first shots with the owl in the tree - the tree itself was set back from the road in the shade. For the shots on the post I used ISO 800 f5.6. I used these settings to get a fast an aperture speed as possible. On reflection, especially with the second set of shots where the light had improved, I should have tried a lower ISO setting to see what speed I could still achieve - after all, it was a sitting owl and not a bird in flight. It is always easier to think of these things afterwards.

Consequently, Neat Image came into play to counteract the noise. All part of the learning curve.

Thanks for all the kind comments. As always with these things; right place, right time; and, in this case, a chauffeur as I don't drive.

Colin