Owl avoids hunting dogs

With the high winds of late this Short-eared Owl  has been hunkered down in the long rough grass to avoid the winds between bouts of hunting but yesterday it was quite calm through the morning and the bird was using more open higher perch points such as stone walls and fence posts as shown in the first five images to watch for its prey.

This pair of local dogs were suddenly on the loose for well over an hour without their owner and they were having a lovely time chasing rabbits through the gorse and hedgerow and they fairly quickly picked up on the perched owl which had to move several times only to be disturbed again.

It was good to see this fine pair of dogs that were obviously firm friends enjoying their time out but the Owl obviously thought otherwise and it moved back down into the central field area to avoid the dogs hunting along the hedgerows.   Good Move !

The dogs eventually disappeared off through the gorse looking for more sport and after waiting a few minutes to be sure they had gone and our wise old Owl was back on to its own more serious hunt for Voles

Stocking up the Stash

The sequence of images below show A Short-eared Owl taking a large Vole and flying with it from one side of a rough grass field to a known stash point  in the grass near the opposite side of the same field.

Once stashed the Owl was straight back on the hut and was obviously stocking up its stash in case rough weather stops hunting procedures over the next couple of days.

Yesterday's mixed bag

My day started well with a nice fly-by from a female Sparrowhawk in the morning sunlight.

A cheeky little Stonechat ,  A meadow pipit and a hunting kestrel kept me company while waiting for Short-eared Owls

The first Shortie that I saw landed in the rough grass quite close to me.  It had seen me before landing and kept an eye on me while completing a full body preen and when it eventually left it flew straight down my lens checking me out in a very casual manner.

Come the evening I had a couple of first year Marine & Wildlife students arrive at my home for a night shoot on Fox and Badger in a set that I have constructed in my back garden.   

On their arrival we discussed their requirements.  I explained the likely procedure of the encounter before us and we came up with a remote shutter controlled photographic coarse of action to achieve their goal.

Ewan and Conner proved to be very well mannered intelligent and inquisitive guys that were very dedicated to their course project and I had a very pleasant evening discussing various aspects of wildlife photography with them as we waited for our subjects to arrive on set.

We spent around four hours on this project and the guys went away with both the fox and the Badger in the can,    I have posted my take on their results below :

It was good for me to meet and work with these fine like-minded young guys and I am pleased to show this brief portfolio of what they achieved and I wish them well with their three year degree at Falmouth.

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.