Watching a wise old Owl control its Territory

Perhaps not the best of days for photography again yesterday but I spent more time studying the behaviour of a large wise old owl protecting its patch from other Short-eared Owls.

In the event of another Owl encroaching on its patch this Owl always flew highest into the sky before challenging any rivals which always gave it the advantage and when it went on a downward attack it was fast and took no prisoners with its talons directed at the head and body of its rival.

Following one such successful sortie our bird returned to one of its known favoured perch posts to rest up for a while and even its post selection was well thought out as of all the dozens of posts in the rough grass fields just a few that it always selected had high surrounding brambles and vegetation several feet higher that the posts.

 This provided the Owl with protection from rear attacks and the brambles blended in with the camouflaged birds plumage from the foreground to the extent that if you did not see the bird fly in you just would not know it was there.

This fine bird was as always aware of my presence but didn't consider me a threat and I was able to watch it relaxing and preening from a static position for over and hour and eventually it sat and watched me retreat from the territory as the evening light receded.

As I returned to my car two other photographers asked me what I had been waiting for in the hedgerow for so long as even with their telephoto lenses they had not picked up on this very clever birds presence 

Kestrel Hover

While working on the high ground yesterday I had a brief opportunity to capture this female Kestrel that flew in and proceeded to hover in the sunlight over the hedgerow that I was working from.

Watching a skillful Kestrel conduct its hunting activities is still as thrilling as it ever was with all parts of the bird in motion with the exception of a completely static head.

This very brief encounter was soon over as the Kestrel headed off looking for greener pastures

Random shorties

With calm weather, plenty of sunshine and generally bright skies it was a fine day for photography on the West Cornwall high ground yesterday.

The Short-eared Owls were slow to move during the morning but things picked up as the day progressed with good sightings from three birds.

Aerial disputes seemed to be a more regular occurrence and were definitely of a more serious nature with the owls slamming violently into each other on several occasions.

Perhaps this zealous competitiveness is being brought about by the depletion of the Vole population due to several birds all working the same rough grass fields for quite some time now.  The percentages of successful hunts seems to be a lot lower.

Owls in Black & White

With wintry storms passing over the Cornish heaths yesterday the weather was very drab and images taken were almost totally lacking in colour so it seemed like a good time to consider some Black & White Portraits,

The wind direction was favourable which created several easy locations to gain a position where the three Short-eared Owls present were head-on as they hunted into the wind in slow moving flight patterns.

Waiting for the birds to fly in close I worked in single shot mode and only fired when I had good eye contact or when the birds were showing full frame on a 500mm lens with a 1.7 Tele-converter fitted to provide a 850mm focal length.

Auto ISO varied between  500-1000 and I kept shutter speeds down to between 1/500th and 1/1000th of a second to gain detail but hold motion blur on maximum apertures in the low light

I was pleased with the eye impact and the plumage details achieved in what was difficult working conditions on the day

Hunting Break

It is a joy to watch the Short-eared Owls hunting on the high ground of West Cornwall and this year their hunt timing has stretched from dawn to dusk.

It has also been good to watch the Owls relaxing in their stand down times which like in this particular study can last for an hour or more when preening and wing stretching and talon cleaning become the order of the day

Still ever watchful for voles on the ground and bird attacks from above the birds eventually launch themselves gracefully back into the sky to resume hunting again.

Cool Kestrel and a wise old Owl

A Short-eared-Owl flies into a rough grass field to hunt and as it does so it sees a female Kestrel perched prominently on a stone wall.

Kestrels in this area have been seen attacking Owls that have just taken prey so this Owl decides to see off the Kestrel before hunting.

Unbeknown to the Owl the Kestrel has just taken and dispatched its own Vole and is not in the mood to be going anywhere.

The owl sets a direct low line of attack towards the kestrel which turns to face its aggressor with talons at the ready and the owl back off with a pass.

The Owl decided to get on with its hunting and was diving into the long grasses within minutes.
The look on its face tells you that it has made a kill as it checks around for any prey robbers before taking off to put more space between itself and the Kestrel before consuming the Vole.

So all ended up well for the wise old Owl but not of course for the female Vole which by the looks of its suckled teats had a family of young out there as well.  Nature is not always Kind !!