First Long-eared Owl

Firstly, great shot Paul, glad they showed well and you got a few photos (y)

I can only presume it was you asking about me to someone on Sunday evening?

As you could see, this site is turning into another 'photographers circus', something that saddens me a little if I'm being honest. Saturday evening was just as bad. This is my 6th year here and I've never seen anything like it at a LEO nest site, before long its going to look like St Aidens with the 100 strong toggers lined up for one poor Shortie trying to hunt. On top of that, I've no idea what the locals must think.

What I will say, so far, everyone seems to be respecting the owls and lets just hope it stays that why, but as we all know, there's always a few that want 'to push it'

Shame I wasn't there, would've been good to meet you, please don't take this as a rant at you, its not. The chap you were talking to said you were a decent bloke, which from a miserable birder like him is quite a compliment :LOL:

The one thing I have learnt though, I won't be sharing locations again and I'd like to ask if you would kindly not share this location either, thanks
 
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Firstly, great shot Paul, glad they showed well and you got a few photos (y)

I can only presume it was you asking about me to someone on Sunday evening?

The one thing I have learnt though, I won't be sharing locations again and I'd like to ask if you would kindly not share this location either, thanks

Thanks Phil much appreciated (y)

Yes it was me. I thought the birder might be you because he was shooting a D500 and 150-600 but when I asked if he was on TP his response was "I'm not a photographer, I'm a birder" :LOL:

I very much enjoyed chatting with him and he was a decent bloke too.

Shame you weren't there, it would have been good to meet you too.

I did not know you had shared the location. I was chatting with some birders at Padley Gorge on Saturday and they told me about it. I thought it might be the same location but did not know until the birder confirmed it. I will absolutely respect your request and I will not share it. The last thing I want to do is disturb the owls or the local residents. The welfare of the wildlife comes first.
 
Hi Paul,

I'm another who pops up there when time permits, so if you see a big bald bloke using Nikon gear, come and say hi! Just got a new dog though, so not sure when time will permit.

Regarding the shot, its got nice light and a good wing position and a nice angle relative to the camera. Where I think it falls down a little is you needed a faster shutter speed which you could have got at the expense of using f9. I know the D850 struggles at higher ISOs but again you would have had a sharper shot by boosting the ISO.

Most of the top level flight photographers use their lenses wide open the vast majority of the time, as long as you lock the focus on the face, then stopping down 1 stop makes very little difference.

Mike
 
I did not know you had shared the location. I was chatting with some birders at Padley Gorge on Saturday and they told me about it.

May be a misunderstanding Paul, he seemed to think it was someone I'd told that told you?? Looks like there's been some confusion but if words got as far a Padley Gorge, there could be even more turning up!

I've only ever taken 4 from TP but I've had quite a few PM's asking to be taken or would I share the location. I'm not trying to keep them a secret, this particular site is open and public, I just don't want it getting out of hand for the owls sake. I can't stop anyone from visiting but I do have to wonder how much disturbance the owls will put up with before it stops them breeding in this location next year. If there's been 4 of us there in the past, its seemed busy.

I've only got the owls best interest at heart, if this site fails next year due to over 'enthusiastic' toggers, it would be a big loss for that area.

atb, Phil
 
Regarding the shot, its got nice light and a good wing position and a nice angle relative to the camera. Where I think it falls down a little is you needed a faster shutter speed which you could have got at the expense of using f9. I know the D850 struggles at higher ISOs but again you would have had a sharper shot by boosting the ISO.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for all the comments, they are much appreciated.

I will watch out for you and be sure to say Hi.

I don't like to make excuses but in this case one of the legs was really stuck on my tripod and this owl turned up while I was still setting up. So I had to grab this shot without checking my settings, hence the f/9 and the 1/500s giving an ISO of 1400.

With time to check my settings I would have increased the shutter speed and fully opened the aperture to f/5.6 to get a lower ISO. An owl showed up a bit later but the light had almost gone by then and with f/5.6 and 1/800s the ISO was 5000.

My tripod legs are now fully stripped down for cleaning and re-greasing. I do not want to spend another 5 minutes trying to unstick the leg and end up possibly missing some shots!

Paul
 
As you could see, this site is turning into another 'photographers circus', something that saddens me a little if I'm being honest. Saturday evening was just as bad. This is my 6th year here and I've never seen anything like it at a LEO nest site, before long its going to look like St Aidens with the 100 strong toggers lined up for one poor Shortie trying to hunt. On top of that, I've no idea what the locals must think.

sadly have witnessed this myself Phil at Shortie location and currently at a barn Owl location where it has become quite evident to me that it has altered its habits,

Nice photo Paul
 
very nice .love the red eyes
 
May be a misunderstanding Paul, he seemed to think it was someone I'd told that told you?? Looks like there's been some confusion but if words got as far a Padley Gorge, there could be even more turning up!

I've only ever taken 4 from TP but I've had quite a few PM's asking to be taken or would I share the location. I'm not trying to keep them a secret, this particular site is open and public, I just don't want it getting out of hand for the owls sake. I can't stop anyone from visiting but I do have to wonder how much disturbance the owls will put up with before it stops them breeding in this location next year. If there's been 4 of us there in the past, its seemed busy.

I've only got the owls best interest at heart, if this site fails next year due to over 'enthusiastic' toggers, it would be a big loss for that area.

atb, Phil
Phil I can say with a 99% chance of being right that its not TP photographers that are the problem ,its almost definetly faceberk and its multitude of groups that are .plus lockdown has given birth to a new breed of aspiring wildlife photographer wannabees ,with no idea and expensive gear thats undoubtedly going to be sold once the realise its harder than it looks .. but Facebook has a lot to answer for in generating a new breed of stupid
 
Phil I can say with a 99% chance of being right that its not TP photographers that are the problem ,its almost definetly faceberk and its multitude of groups that are .plus lockdown has given birth to a new breed of aspiring wildlife photographer wannabees ,with no idea and expensive gear thats undoubtedly going to be sold once the realise its harder than it looks .. but Facebook has a lot to answer for in generating a new breed of stupid


I totally agree I call them the snapper squad round me haha

They share locations on groups of anything and everything no matter how sensitive the nature of the bird/animal. Once they got there blurry oof shots they happy and post away !

I have for example grebes near me that no one used to bother with till snapper squad posted and now every year the poor birds get mithered to death, with people poking lenses through bushes to get shots of them !

I don't mind sharing normal locations of stuff with other like minded people who put hours and hours in to get a couple of decent shots, but these people don't care about wildlife just the trophy of posting location and getting likes for it?

Feel better for that little rant I will get back in my box now :)
 
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