Today I was full of expectations, I was even up and on the road at 5.00am! There was going to be loads of owls showing, amongst them would be a few juveniles and all in glorious sunshine, hmmmmmmm!
I did see plenty of Little Owls, twelve different ones in fact, albeit most of them were distant, no juveniles were seen although I did hear two, and for the glorious sunshine, how wrong could I have been?
It was cloudy at best and throwing it down at worst, and windy too! Not great for watching owls and even worse for photography. However, I had to make the best in these trying conditions and my long stake out a two different sites did produce some closer views, eventually.
I had some great opportunities for flight shots, most were a right load of rubbish and were duly disposed of straight away, the dark dank conditions made getting any shutter speed to freeze the action difficult, all I could do was to pump up the ISO to 2000 and hope for the best.
Even most of the images which I opted to save because they looked ok'ish (is that a word?) on my small screen on the camera (more in hope really) until I got home were a right load of crap, either blurred or very very grainy.
So after a bit of post processing these are the best of a bad bunch, I'm not bitter.....not one bit!
This is my favourite image from the day (below), taken early on when the light was at it best, if that's what you can call it! I've seen similar images of Little Owls in this kind of pose from other photographers, so I seized my opportunity when it came along........The Marching Owl .
So much for my intense owling weekend, the weather forecast for tomorrow is even worse than today, I guess Sunday's going to be a DIY day.........oh brilliant!!
Nice flight shots mate............
ReplyDeleteYou did a ruddy sight better than I thought you would Paul, considering the weather! Some really great shots, with the flight shots in bad light showing your skills. I love shots of 'marching owls', and yours is right in there with them - well done!!
ReplyDeleteYep, grey day Paul but I would die for any of those shots. Love the mraching Little'un.
ReplyDeleteDespite the conditions, these photographs are superb. I particularly like the marching one and the final flight shot, with the out-stretched wings is a beauty. DIY eh? Gutting indeed, but get all your jobs done today and you get tomorrow. It's throwing it down in Lancashire today, but tomorrow's forecast is for dawn to dusk sunshine! I'm going to try to get out early.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your photos, Paul! Thank you so much for sharing. Greetings from Montreal, Canada. My father's parents were born in Kent, England.
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