All is quiet or is it just me ?

Well the last week in July has seen a big drop with the garden birds and not many visits from this Female Sparrowhawk so just a sighting on the back of the shed for now.

 it's not much better when I've been out and about but one location is doing ok for Otters,Tawny Owl with young and the Barn Owls are showing well so it's not all bad.
A couple of shots from a few days ago.

I think this one is a young female due to the very dark colours but yet to see the male out so i could be wrong.

Sea eagles from Mull

Well I've just got back from a fantastic few days away in Mull with the Mrs and time for a little update, this one has been on my list for a long time and after a mate of mine had been earlier on in the year and came back with some great shots it had to be done.
Strange how you have to go too Scotland to get some decent weather, even stranger was that i didn't hear a Scottish accent the whole time i was there.
Big thanks goes to Martin of  Mull Charters for providing a fantastic service with a few laughs on the way and we stayed at his great B&B (FASCADAIL) that i'd recommend it to anyone.

I new that bobbing around in a boat and being lucky enough to get some shots wasn't going to be easy, add on the fact that i had a lens on that i only managed to get by luck 3 days beforehand made it a bit of a challenge as well.
That was going to be my excuse if it all when't wrong and i didn't get any shots so instead of getting giddy and just running off hundreds of shots hopping to get lucky i tried for quality instead of quantity.

Click on pic for large version

Last one shows just how big these beauties are and that's a fair size mackerel it's got for a snack.

So that's me and the fantastic White Tailed Sea Eagles of Mull and it looks like this one will be going straight back onto next years list.

Time for some furry things. Updated 2/7/12

Sat and watched a pair of stoats chasing a young rabbit in the rain this afternoon and so i thought it might be good to add some of my furry shots.
First one is a poor quality shot from years ago but is the only one i have of a stoat atm so i'm wanting to get something better soon.

And from one of the smallest too the biggest, Red deer stags having a early morning battle.

Then the girls get there handbags out.

Next up is a Yorkshire Red Squirrel from a private wood Nr Hawes up on the Yorkshire Dales.

The next two are from when i've been waiting for Barn Owls and a bonus has turned up.

A Brown Hare early in the morning.

And a Red Fox from late in the evening.

Even later on an Otter.

Click on any pic for a larger version.

Well here is the update:-
So back to the Stoats location from the day before, it didn't feel like a great morning for it with a cool wind and a bit of drizzle but you don't get the shots from sitting at home watching TV.
I decided to take a bit of tinned dog food for bait and a small squeak caller to see if i could get them to pose for the camera, so a few smokes later the first one comes shooting out of the brambles. Far too quick for me to get a shot of but after a while i could make them out moving about in the hedge and then this one popped up. 

Another Barn Owl update

So i have a new location nr York, sometimes everyone you know has seen Barn Owls but never gets any shots of them so when a friend of mine at work mentioned i should get myself down too a place he knows i was a bit sceptical.
The next night i was in the car and off for a look so i left the camera at home and just wanted to spend a bit of time watching for any signs of them. Within the first 5 mins i had seen the first bird out hunting and the light breeze was perfect for them. I just sat in the long grass and then watched the Male bird come straight down track i had just walked and only banked off too the left when he spotted me. I stayed for longer than i should of and watched both birds take back 6-8 kills each within the space of about 2 1/2 hours so it was obvious the box had young being fed.

2nd night and the camera was coming with me and even the weather was being nice, i knew where i wanted to sit but this meant walking past the box that's on the other side of the field. of course the Barn Owl knew i was there no matter how quite i was trying to be. As i said in my previous Barn Owl blog, sometimes Barn owls can be quite tolerant of people and the location was perfect for them so i sat and waited. And i waited and waited a bit more, first hour in and still no sign then i spotted one coming back to the box from the other direction.
 This did make me chuckle to myself and is for me a big part of bird photography, not getting any shots that night seemed to double the excitement of the next night and what a bit of patience might bring. 
So trip number 3 and no photo's yet, as i walked i could see one bird out and after a couple of mins the other came out to hunt together, i managed to get to my spot and the birds where preoccupied with hunting so i was set up.
 First past was the male

Technically the above shot is maybe the best I've taken, 700mm of lens and a slow shutter speed 1/125sec
with a target not much bigger than a large orange so i was more than happy for a first shot.
It must of been my lucky night as the sun went down with a nice warm light and the darker female came to sit on the breeze right in front of me.

The last shot of the night was the main reason i chose my spot with the light coming in from the left and a flight path back to the box.

Just a couple more shots i would like to get from here but i'll be back when that happens.

Garden Catching up !!!

Barn owls have taken over most of my time when the weather isn't crap so the good news is that i'm up to 5 regular places too see them.
 A brief catch up on some of the birds from my garden.
3 finches Gold, Green and Bull

Time for a new perch soon but i might start feeding these less, sunflower seeds are costing me a fortune !!!


The Mother Red Legged Partridge brings the young into the garden most years so time to get down low and snap the bundles of fluff.

It's not often i do too much planning for shots in the garden but we were getting regular visits of a pair of Jay's and these are super alert birds and not easily fooled. So i had the perch but needed to put it somewhere that would allow me to shoot from the garage and through a garden gate with a nice background.
Backgrounds have been top of my list for getting better at and can make a huge difference to a shot, a reverse of Landscape photography where you need some nice foreground interest.

Jay

Next update will be after i get back from Mull so lets see if i come back with anything worth posting.

Owl rescue

I’m lucky to have access to an out of bounds area of my local nature reserve with permission from the warden so I took a walk out on Wednesday evening to look for the barn owls. When I got within a 100yrd of the nest box I noticed lots of jackdaws swooping around the area of the box so I knew something was not quite right, as I was stood under the box I heard a “clicking” sound behind me and after a bit of a search I found a Tawny owl chick hiding in the grass looking cold and shaking.

Even the most heartless of people could not have walked away from the little bundle of fluff, my walking jacket has a zip off hood so I popped the owl in and I got on the phone to the warden and he came to get the ladders out so we could get it back in the box.

Here she is sat in my jacket hood.

Update 23/5/12

I must of got some good Karma from the baby owl on the 16/5/12, 7 days later and on my next trip out i came across this adult sat in the early morning sun.

I'm missing the Barn Owls

Got a severe case of cabin fever at the moment, i only have to think about going out with the camera and it starts chucking it down with rain and this is prime Barn Owl time to make it even worse.
This is a few of my fav's but it's not all about getting photo's, fantastic birds to watch and i've spent a lot of time doing just that and you do need the right conditions for these to hunt in front of the lens.


First one is from a site high up on the Yorkshire dales that you wouldn't say is the best environment or most likely place to find them because it's a bleak place even in summer, this one lives in a barn just across the road from it's hunting barn and takes food back to the nest.

Next up is a great area for birds of prey and just out side of York, 3 Barn Owls are in the area along with Kestrels, Little Owls and this year held 5-6 Short Eared Owls for most of the winter but these have now migrated back to Scandinavia.


The owls seem to be a bit more relaxed here and it doesn't matter how much i think i'm hidden away in the hedge they always know i'm there and come for a look before hunting.

I have had them too close for focussing on and that can get annoying.

The resident Kestrels are always on the look out for a easy meal and will hassle the owls for food.

We starred each other out for a while but the Barn Owl is tolerant of human presence if you sit quite.

Another site is close to me but see's a lot of dog walkers and pheasant shooters in the area so these birds keep a low profile and come out at the last light and do not show very often in the daylight.
First shot is the one that got me hooked on Barn Owls, the light was just right on a early March afternoon at about 3.30pm when it came in front of the hide with a golden reed bed for a background.

I put a lot of time in at this location often staying well into dark just trying to work out the flight paths and hunting zones.

So fingers crossed that the weather will break soon and let me get back out to spend some quality time with one of Britain's finest birds of prey.