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
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