North Facing!

I was to be found owl 'n' about again yesterday afternoon, although very windy the light levels were excellent so a few obliging owls should make it a good day in terms of images.

First stop was site No 79 near to Peatling Magna, I have never managed a "daytime" image from this site before so with the conditions in my favour I was hoping. After an hours wait sitting in the Landrover I was rewarded when a Little Owl showed itself at the nest hole entrance.  

He popped out briefly to do some wing stretching, it was a shame though as too many branches were obscuring my line of sight to get good images. To make matters even harder the nest hole faces north so the sun was never on the owl. I'm not complaining though as these were my best daytime views of the owl at this site.

Next stop was just down the road in the centre of Peatling Magna and site No 68. Again I had to wait a while but sure enough an owl showed in the end, and would you believe it,  the light was in totally the wrong direction again!!!!

This owl didn't hang around long, 2 minutes of good views and then straight back into it's nest hole. I think it was the wind that was keeping them in today, Little Owls just don't like the wind!

Cardinal Sin!

Tonight I decided to stake out site 79 at Peatling Magna, the intention was two fold, firstly I have never managed an image of an owl from this site, and secondly it needed checking out for any breeding success.

The Landrover was positioned at 7.15pm, the light was good for images and there was plenty of attractive "owl like" posts for them to land on, all that was needed now was some owls!!

After a 2 hour wait they finally emerged from their nest hole, by now the light was pretty poor but I'm not complaining, I got my first ever image, and a pair too!

The first bird then dropped down onto one of the further away posts and posed nicely, a few more images were in the can.

Then the second bird dropped down a little nearer to me and onto a post with some old string wrapped around it, again it posed nicely whilst I took a few images. 

Not being completely satisfied with the images (too far away) I decided to chance my arm and get a little closer. The Landrover was started....the owl didn't move, I drove a lot nearer and then manoeuvred into position....the owl didn't move, I fumbled around and made more noise than I'd wanted to....the owl didn't move. Blimey my luck was in tonight, this was one confiding owl, I couldn't believe how close I was. I framed the bird, waited a few seconds for it to turn and look straight down the lens and then nothing? WHAT!!!!!! Oh my god a flat battery........what a pillock, a fantastic opportunity gone! I didn't bring my spares with me, a lesson learnt and I will never, never do that again.

Oh by the way no chicks were either seen or heard.