Wild Long-eared Owl- Portrait shot added

Phil-D

Phil-D

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One from yesterday evening, looking a little wind swept.

The dark area bottom right was the wall I was hiding behind, the branch it land on was getting blown up and down and the owl kept disappearing out of view! .......I'm surprised it didn't get sea sick :D

Managed to get close after a text from Dan @drooke who was in another field, thanks matey (y). I hadn't seen it land and was heading in the other direction :rolleyes:

All C&C welcome, thanks for looking :)

Long-eared Owl by Phil D, on Flickr
 
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Great find and works really well on the greenery :)
 
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…envious, good for you Phil! (y)
 
stunning for me another species that eludes but not for the want of trying
 
Comments much appreciated, thanks :)
 
You've got to be more than happy with this one Phil, great stare from Leo!

Techs are spot on, superb IQ, just goes to show you shouldn't be afraid of pushing the ISO to get a good sharp file. Maybe a little taming of the highlights on the back would help.

Is there any way to get the sun behind you at this location, or is it open fields?

Mike
 
pooley said:
You've got to be more than happy with this one Phil, great stare from Leo!

Techs are spot on, superb IQ, just goes to show you shouldn't be afraid of pushing the ISO to get a good sharp file. Maybe a little taming of the highlights on the back would help.

Is there any way to get the sun behind you at this location, or is it open fields?

Mike
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Thanks Mike, I'll have a look at the highlights down the back see what it looks like, I didn't drop them at all, leaving them as shot. The raw just showed a very small patch of blown but I did over-expose 2/3rds to get more detail from the shadows.

I did wonder if the bright sunlight down the back add to the shot with it being backlit??

From where I was it would've been tricky getting to the 'sunny side', not impossible but there was more chance of spooking it, cheers


Cheffievrs said:
Ticks all the boxes, superb Phil..!
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Thanks Jason
 
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pooley said:
. Maybe a little taming of the highlights on the back would help.
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Mike, just done a quick edit and dropped the highlights, you could well be right mate, think it looks better, cheers (y)

LEO perched resized hl dropped.jpg
 
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Phil,made up for ya mate,I know a little of how much effort has gone into these owls, i'm sure there is way more than I really am aware of! All credit mate great field craft to get in,( won't mention walking the wrong way how many times do I do that,lmao) and a cracking exposure with him in the shade. Stunning shot mate,but as always it's the guy trying over and over and that leading to this is what really floats my boat. wicked mate just wicked. Mikes comment noted Phil I'd most likely have gone the same way as you but def prefer your edit. Phil what's the cause of the slight blur just below the beak,i'm sure i've seen that in the odd SEO image i've taken i'm slightly perplexed by the why though?

Fab mate really like this and of course the other stuff

stu
 
Stuart Philpott said:
Phil,made up for ya mate,I know a little of how much effort has gone into these owls, i'm sure there is way more than I really am aware of! All credit mate great field craft to get in,( won't mention walking the wrong way how many times do I do that,lmao) and a cracking exposure with him in the shade. Stunning shot mate,but as always it's the guy trying over and over and that leading to this is what really floats my boat. wicked mate just wicked. Mikes comment noted Phil I'd most likely have gone the same way as you but def prefer your edit. Phil what's the cause of the slight blur just below the beak,i'm sure i've seen that in the odd SEO image i've taken i'm slightly perplexed by the why though?

Fab mate really like this and of course the other stuff

stu
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Many thanks Stu, I've certainly put one or two hours since the end of March

This is my 3rd year on these birds, but only my 2nd year at this site. No breeding last year meant they were hard to predict, knowing where they roost gives you an idea where they'll fly from but they have more than one way out of the plantation and so far this year has been no different. I'm hopeful the female is sat on eggs but can't be sure. If that's the case and they successfully hatch both adult birds out hunting and returning back to the nest after each kill does make flight path prediction a little easier :)

What a lot of folk don't realise is how small these birds are. I was talking to me mate the other day who's seen a lot of me photos, he actually thought they were around 2 1/2ft tall when perched!

As you'll well know Stu, its like owt with wild animals/birds, putting ya self where you hope is the right place, right time and a bit of lady luck, all helps..........plus a text to say, 'its behind you' :D


Stuart Philpott said:
what's the cause of the slight blur just below the beak
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Stu, although it doesn't look it, there was quite a strong wind blowing from the right as we look at the shot. I can only presume that the Owls feathers are very soft, even downy like, something to do with feather structure? Maybe down to them having no water proofing? But I've noticed before, the wind does cause that blurring affect , certainly down the breast feathers.

What I have considered is visiting a BOP centre that keep LEO's it would be interesting to get up really close to one that's not going to fly away! :D, cheers mate
 
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Phil cheers for the cool reply ,very kind mate,how big compared to SEO Phil?. We've still got some SEO's left here Phil tis getting late now they have normally gone back. Granted i've spent more hours than I'd like to rermember trying for a shot and am a bit preoccupied with hares,but it would be so cool to have both lots breed,sorry mate made I dream a bit there. Ahh mate I do hope they do well,mainly i'm talking on yours,but ya know both could do with numbers swelling as well as the photo....ops.

Keep at it mate,cheers for the notes on those feathers,never seen even one LEO mate, but as above a familiarity to that one with SEO,one day mate.... for now can't complain:)

stu
 
@Stuart Philpott

Stu, what were the chances mate! Last night me and Dan were over there again, 20.00 hrs and no sign.

We were ready for calling it a night but decided to have one last wander round, passing a few trees right next to the road, perched no more than 20ft away, an owl.

We were sure it would be off, so nice and steady, cameras on wall we started to take a few shots, .......it stayed, we took a few more.......... and it just wasn't bothered, even closed it eyes a couple of times and looked like it was nodding off :D

After around 10 minutes of taking photos we left it perched were it was, it couldn't have performed any better had it been captive!

So my thoughts as to why it was so tolerant.

We've noticed that one of the owls is less bothered by our presence. Its quite happy to hunt in the same field as we're sat, it'll see us but carries on regardless, I think this is the male that was perched here. The other will avoid being any where near us, it actually goes in the opposite direction once we've been spotted.

If this is the male, as I think and the female is sat on eggs, the nest could well have been close by. From what I've read, the male will sit and 'guard' the nest and won't be fazed by much, this might explain why it didn't appear bothered by our presence.

Conditions were far from good, light was poor, it was perched in quite a dark spot but with a good light bg, although I have cloned a branch from the left side :)

Shot at 1/125th, f6.3, ISO 4500 @600mm no crop, detail was never going to be perfect at those settings but it does clearly show the downy like feathers we mentioned above.

I have a few to look at yet and might put another thread up later with a couple of shots, cheers

portrait 2 resized.jpg
 
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Stuart Philpott said:
how big compared to SEO Phil?
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Forgot to quote this above Stu :)

They're quite a bit smaller than Shorties, all info says they're around 12 inchs plus when perched but this one looks a tad smaller which might also indicate it as the male.

Apparently they are nearly impossible to sex but the female is the larger of the two, would be good to see them perched together, cheers
 
Phil cheers again wow I always thought around the same size as SEO for some reason,cheers for putting me straight.

Phil for what ever reason some birds or animals inside a species even going further that live in the same place and see the same amount of people are more tolerent of us and some lees so. Haven't the foggiest why mate, but feel we can make use of this,with due care and almost enhance it by them seeing us over and over. Caution is all and getting that bond almost of trust no easy thing ,but it is doable,I feel you are heading there or have got there mate,although "there" is not a fixed point ya know what I'm trying to say. Ahh mate i'm really hoping you are going to have a fantastic summer with them and that she is on eggs.
Proper grateful for the extras too bro,I know nothing about them. Man those feathers really do mess with me,Phil I got a fantastic day in when I'd only just got me 300 with SEO. I made the images of them with a 550D, remarkable really this tiny camera and a wacking great lens,can't believe I got anything but didn't do too bad. But I agonised for hours about why those feathers weren't as sharp as the rest of the image. didn't have a clue about what you have just shown me and why I spotted it instantly

Haha always something to learn mate cheers for the extras bro very kind

stu
 
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