Different Coloured Short Eared Owl

[KentYeti]

If anyone deserved to just turn up at Capel Fleet early this afternoon and see three Short Eared Owls perching and hunting it was Sunnydale. It was she who had got me to take us to Capel in February this year where I saw my first SOE. A wonderful sight and one that started my interest in birds and bird photography. With a strong emphasis on Owls that I am sure no one here has noticed! LOL.

So I gave her an extensive lesson in using my Nikon D7000 plus 300mm f4 lens and 1.4 TC last night. All of two shots!. But Sunny is Sunny and does pick up how to do things rather fast.

So below is her very first live photo with such a camera set up.

Interesting is the different colouring around the bird's facial disk. It was scrunched up against the wind, (the Owl, not Sunny), but what seems to be almost ginger shows up quite clearly.

Is this an older bird perhaps? (Again it's the Owl I am talking of ).




Cheers,

Bryan

[faz]

owls and other birds have different feathers/expressions for sitting ,sleeping,flying etc its normal its just that we never see so often if that makes sense?
tracy (sunnydale) sent her a msg today not seen her on line hope all is ok

[Dogghound]

This bird looks like a female, females tend to show a darker facial disk than males. I cant see enough detail on this bird to age it, do you have any photo's showing the tail or belly?

As im am sure you may have seen with tawny or long eared, owls often scrunch their faces (contract thefacial disk) when you get close to them. Certainly with short eared owl this darkens the face and hides the bright yellow eyes making it less easy to see the bird.