At 18.30 PM on a cloud covered hill where the rough grass fields were suddenly plagued by Cornish mizzle which was frustrating as I had seen a distant Short-eared Owl out there before the mist rolled in and the light faded even more.
I was working from a footpath alongside a rough overgrown Cornish wall and had just changed my setting to try to cope with the poor conditions ending up on ISO 8000 F4 1/250 sec which is not a good place to be on a Nikon 500mm prime lens.
Out of the mist following the wall line came this fine Short-eared Owl which I first saw in the gloom at around twenty five metres, It suddenly realised that I was there as I took my first shots, It faltered in flight but kept moving towards me along the wall line with its piercing yellow eyes glaring to suggest that I was not welcome !!
Focus tracking kept me locked on to these glaring eyes as I panned with the Owl until it was in front of me at just seven metres after which I ran out of close focal range.
The Owl disappeared back into the gloom as it passed on along the wall but somehow my camera had coped with the encounter to produce this atmospheric sequence of flight portraits and I was one:
Happy Chappy !!
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