Prompted by ongoing reports of three Long-eared Owls at Rutland Water, I decided to take a visit to see these. In the event, I only could see two of the three, and then they were so obscured by intervening branches, that they were unidentifiable during the hour that I spent watching them. But for one of them doing a little light preening and taking a dump, they could have been dummies. I will take everyone's word that they were LE's. My apalling picture (the best of many attempts) shows the extent of the problem.
From the car park at Rutland Water there was a leucistic Jackdaw in a distant tree, which eventually descended onto the far side of the field by the car park - again not good photographically.
Determined to get a proper view of an owl that day, I set off back towards home, and stopped off a Cossington Meadows (on my route) as Short-eared Owls had been seen there recently. I arrived just before dusk, but no SEs were seen. I was on the verge of giving up as it was too dark for photography, when a Barn Owl flew into view a couple of fields away, and disappeared stage-right. I decided to hang around a while and it eventually flew into a field beside me and started quartering the far side. I had to wang the ISO sensitivity up to the equivalent of 3200, and was getting shutter speeds of around 1/50th (not much good on 400mm focal length!). It is not surprising, therefore, that the results mean that I only have 'atmosphere' shots. It was just wonderful to watch, however
A terrible day photographically, but a most enjoyable one.
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From the car park at Rutland Water there was a leucistic Jackdaw in a distant tree, which eventually descended onto the far side of the field by the car park - again not good photographically.
Determined to get a proper view of an owl that day, I set off back towards home, and stopped off a Cossington Meadows (on my route) as Short-eared Owls had been seen there recently. I arrived just before dusk, but no SEs were seen. I was on the verge of giving up as it was too dark for photography, when a Barn Owl flew into view a couple of fields away, and disappeared stage-right. I decided to hang around a while and it eventually flew into a field beside me and started quartering the far side. I had to wang the ISO sensitivity up to the equivalent of 3200, and was getting shutter speeds of around 1/50th (not much good on 400mm focal length!). It is not surprising, therefore, that the results mean that I only have 'atmosphere' shots. It was just wonderful to watch, however
A terrible day photographically, but a most enjoyable one.
.
Long-eared Owl (honestly!) - Rutland Water (Egleton Reserve).
Jackdaw (leucistic) - Rutland Water (Egleton Reserve).
Barn Owl - Cossington Meadows
We have almost got identical pictures at Cossington! The Barn Owls are great, shame we cant get good snaps of the SEO's! Check out my blog mate - http://insearchofnature.blogspot.com
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