We are blessed with a good influx of Short-eared Owls on the high grounds and rough grass fields of Cornwall at this time and what a magnificent wildlife spectacle they are to watch hunting during the late afternoon.
The five birds that I saw yesterday ranged in colour from quite pale through to one particular bird that I selected here on which the plumage was quite a dark brown.
This bird made three passes within ten to fifteen metres of my location in a very rough Cornish granite stone wall but such was its concentration on it eyes down hunting mode that it never sensed my presence.
On its forth pass however it raised its eyes having heard my shutter firing and turned its attention and flight direction towards me and in the last usable shot that I got the bird was just two metres off the ground and four metres in front of my camera before I finally felt the overhead thrust of it passing through the air. AMAZING !!
