The Idiosyncrasies Of Wildlife.

[Dale.]

I'm sure a lot of you will be able to indentify.

It's probably no secret, that alongside chasing Kingfishers for a number of years now, I've also had an interest in owls, especially Barn Owls. I've managed to photograph Short-eared Owls on a few occasions locally and also, I very often hear Tawny Owls in the nearby woods as well as occasionally, having Tawnies in our garden at night.

I've not seen a Barn Owl in years though, despite making decent efforts to locate them. I've researched it a little too, and now I recognise decent habitat for them, etc. I've never seen one though, despite there being chat of them being around.

That changed tonight. On my way home from a mate's house, I decided to take the scenic route, not that I could see much of it as it was dark. I just prefered it to the bypass and dual carriageway. I pulled in at one point, just to have a look and listen. I was there maybe 10 minutes. I saw something and long story short, a Barn Owl flew close to overhead.

I was chuffed.

I got in the car, headed home, still on the country roads and about 4 miles along the road from the first sighting, I saw another.

You've got to love Wildlife. I've spent a significant amount of time over the last few years trying to locate Barn Owls, without success, despite tip offs, research and all that, then tonight, 2 almost fall in my lap and I'm not trying.

Now, is this another hole I want to go down, just like the Kingfishers?

 

[Gav.]

I feel your pain, take up portraits

 

[Beardynature]

That is always the way with nature, and never when you have a camera or the ability to stop and take the picture

 

[Tringa]

Know what you mean, Dale.

When I'm in NW Scotland I look out for all wildlife but especially any I would not(or would be very unlikely to) see elsewhere.

Some years ago I spent hours checking a few places to see what I could find, with no luck. On returning to the house I sat outside with a cup of tea and within about half an hour six whooper swans flew by and no long after two white tailed eagles, Some time you are lucky and some time not.

Dave

 

[Stuart Philpott]

How big is your spade mate?.how many holes do ya want to dig for your self?


A cautionary tale

. My last barnie image is hilarious Dale...........I'm meant to be shooting shorties I'm facing shaz she's maybe 10 yards down a wall.beyond her are other togs I'm trying to be away from, as some T has posted shorties her on interweb. and a quiet place is no longer that

out of the corner of my eye a flash of gold lands just behiind my lady.

My eyes focus barnie. OMG What follows went sommit like this :

Shaz barnie

what?

behind you

WOT !!

barnie darling behind you tension in voice is raisiing

I point camera at her .mutter OH FFS ...............DUCK

take crap piccy of her head/hat and owl faciing t'other way


what a duck here?



as the shutter pressed she then caught on something was behind her barnie lifts off
I completely blow it coming towards me at point blank range

Barnie flies over shaz's head and is gone

other togs see nuffin


Oooh a barn owl it went right over my head she said

did you get a picture?

I am now on my knees weeping at being such a crap tog........I did mutter some expletives though ,

Mate the above is truth my advice JUST DON'T GO THERE............just don't go there......................... and if it makes ya smile I do have that frame, but I'll only post it for ya if ya promise just once to listen to me

Just don't

JEES I TRY SO HARD TO LOOK AFTER MY FRIENDS WELL BEING AND MENTAL HEALTH EVEN OUR MODS !!!!!!


Night bro I'll let ya sleep on the reply

stu

 

[Dale.]

How big is your spade mate?.how many holes do ya want to dig for your self?


A cautionary tale

. My last barnie image is hilarious Dale...........I'm meant to be shooting shorties I'm facing shaz she's maybe 10 yards down a wall.beyond her are other togs I'm trying to be away from, as some T has posted shorties her on interweb. and a quiet place is no longer that

out of the corner of my eye a flash of gold lands just behiind my lady.

My eyes focus barnie. OMG What follows went sommit like this :

Shaz barnie

what?

behind you

WOT !!

barnie darling behind you tension in voice is raisiing

I point camera at her .mutter OH FFS ...............DUCK

take crap piccy of her head/hat and owl faciing t'other way


what a duck here?



as the shutter pressed she then caught on something was behind her barnie lifts off
I completely blow it coming towards me at point blank range

Barnie flies over shaz's head and is gone

other togs see nuffin


Oooh a barn owl it went right over my head she said

did you get a picture?

I am now on my knees weeping at being such a crap tog........I did mutter some expletives though ,

Mate the above is truth my advice JUST DON'T GO THERE............just don't go there......................... and if it makes ya smile I do have that frame, but I'll only post it for ya if ya promise just once to listen to me

Just don't

JEES I TRY SO HARD TO LOOK AFTER MY FRIENDS WELL BEING AND MENTAL HEALTH EVEN OUR MODS !!!!!!


Night bro I'll let ya sleep on the reply

stu

Lol, made me chuckle that.

Post the frame Bud, I kind of promise not to go down the hole.

 

[Faldrax]

Several years ago I was out with the family and the place we were visiting had a falconer giving a short talk then flying her barn owl between various perches over the crowd.
Happily taking a few pictures, when the owl decided my arm looked like a nice perch!
So there I am, getting a fantastic close up of a beautiful barn owl perched on my arm - torn between the joy of having the great opportunity, and mentally cursing at the same time as I had no way of getting a picture of it (far too close for my 70-300 lens)!

 

[swanseamale47]

I've got a lot of owls around me, I have woods and trees around my house. Hear them a lot, almost never see them though.

 

[Dale.]

I've got a lot of owls around me, I have woods and trees around my house. Hear them a lot, almost never see them though.

Same here, in the woods opposite, they are Tawnies. I do see the odd one flying over at night too.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

I'm not utterly convinced by your promises Dale...call me old and fuddy. I know in my heart you are a good un, but kinda promise...............hmmmmmmm

Oh mate I always tell stories, here always have done, I always believe folks really don't believe 'em, but they are always true. I just don't always back up that with the proof I have, I kinda like that, so 'cause it's you just this once even though I don't believe your promise I'll cut ya a bit of slack and share the image.....see the guy back of frame can we call him Gav please ( Gav honestly mate we should call him stu, but hey you'll take it in the spirit intended, I've had a hard day builders are so easily slayed, thought I'd up me game)


_S2I0226 by Stuart Philpott, on Flickr

Dale the idiocyncrasies of wildlife toggiin it's behind you

what the image does say too me being a little more serious is how ofter we as image makers never raise the camera to something that is happening right besides us, simply because we never see it. I almost always shoot with Shaz there or there abouts, so so many times my focus is in the wrong place and her beiing set back she sees the whole picture. Especially when I'm down low Dale........I oft have half an eye on her we communicate by signs we have a code that allows 4eyes to be better than 2.

Mate now I'm being serious ,and back to barnies......the reason I think behind your sightings is fairly straight forwards.........I think 'cause I haven't read this it's stu's take built on observation not science:

you saw 'em 'cause right now young barnies are searching out new territories I've seen this for years and years bro over and over in Jan I see barnies in new spots in Jan as I drive us home from some wildlife toggin escapade.

So a degree of caution ensues......they don't always stay in that spot obviously, sure if things work out, they find a potential breeding site a good hunting ground then they might not be transient, they could set up shop.....but for sure that is not a given.

Dale there is some hope in your sightings, but temper that, hope

We live in a ickle farm workers cottage the old farmer adored owls.......so he would leave rough bits all ways for the voles to thrive.................. I used to have barn owls hunting bottom of my garden, the fella ( male owl) was so used to me he would sit with me , oh mate I didn't take pictures back then but the images I could have found. Now a new guy owns the farm horsey folk, goes to work in a chopper massive money

It's singularly saddening how much damage one guy with money can do to an ecosystem.ha and the idiot is utterly clueless to what he has done here so so much damage.

Hey ho bro glad I made ya smile, you have all the craft to find and make barn owl images, everything depends on how transient your sightiings are

and then me olde mate ya work the weather, or be gifted like I one was

 

[Dale.]

I went back a couple of days later @Stuart Philpott , stood at the very spot, (camera and binos on standby), partially concealed as dusk approached. It's kind of a private road, well, a dead end access to a farm. I was hoping to bump into local folk, maybe even the farmer. I'm uncomfortable with speaking to strangers but mostly, they turn out to be very chatty and the little nuggets of info they can reveal make the initial uncomfortableness worth it.

I saw only one guy and he passed in a tractor, I gave a wave, more to show I meant no harm than to get him to stop. He waved back and carried on with his business.

I stood there for over 2 hours, from daylight until it was almost too dark to see much at all as there are no street lights there. I didn't see a Barn Owl this time and the realisation that maybe I had just lucked in the night before set in. That said, I've been watching reported Barn Owl sightings locally on various websites for a while now and they are about, even close to home but less so than the 12 miles or so away I saw them this time. A couple of years ago, there was a known nest, it got mobbed when the word got out, a burger van would've been more use than a camera in the end.

It's not over, they are there, maybe youngsters looking for a home but I am sure there are resident adults there too. Looking back on my Kingfisher antics, it started much like this, with a sighting, then research, then the looking and finding bit, speaking to locals and all that. The KFs took me 3 years to get images that to me, would rival a paid hide and doing that now with the Barnies would be another huge commitment.

That's where I am with this now, I'm deciding whether to pursue it as the Kingfishers have affected other aspects of my photography, especially my other passion, landscapes . I didn't pursue landscapes much at all last year, spending disproportionate hours with the KFs. That's not a complaint, it was a privilege to do so and the lure of that might be too much for me to resist with the Barnies now.

I think for now, I'm going to dip my toes in the water with this and see where it goes. I must also bear in mind, Barnies are Sched 1 but hopefully, I'll have that covered if it does take off.

Thanks for the frame Stu, much coolness.

 

[Stuart Philpott]

I've said this a while Dale and you of all know................................. this really getting into a species takes a lot of time.sure one builds a level of expertise and sure within that hopefully more images come, But tis nature bro nowt is given. One can bosh hours and hours for nothing. you have had a tough kingy year bud ha came good at the end, but time and effort doesn't equal reward in our game.
So go have a go at barnie.despite me urging ya not to Dale we have one life use it, barnies are obviously something that grab you , so yup dip ya toes see what gives

I wish Ii had time to persue landscape a bit and learn it, but honestly I yearn for more beastie time more time with a camera in my hand is a huge lust

realistically i'm itchiing to be with a hare again right now,first sortie is weeks away,IE close of shooting season. Pragmatically there is plausibly not much more to find with hare image wise for me but there is still an itch to scratch, brown hare have taught me so much they are hard to leave

Your owl nest, hmmm I said to Shaz recently why don't you just cook some bacon butties with all these togs we could make a killing, owl plus interweb = carnage. I struggle with this Dale really struggle...image makers are so many now I've been working on a shorty set editiing wise but I'm kinda scared to post. It's got to the stage where we seem to go to the one place no body else wants to be, that said straight into the light has it's moments..................but yup tis a proper struggle. That said maybe the joy of watchiing a shorty hunt is worthy of a struggle?

wildlife in blighty huh

Image is fun so much of what we go through in that frame, facing the wrong way being so wrapped up in sharing the joy missing the best chance in ages in decent light as well all wrapped up in that frame, much irony bro.............................. not sure on coolness, makes me giggle though

which ever way ya go Dale as always mate all the luck in the world

 

[Don Fischer]

That is always the way with nature, and never when you have a camera or the ability to stop and take the picture

I got a Panosonic Lumix ZS 100 some time back and carry it in a belt holster. Always have a camera with me. Did a night photo of a racoon with a film camera years ago. Wife held a flash light on it in a short tree while I focused on it. Then turned off the flashlight and shot it with a flash. Came out really good! Could shoot a number of other birds the same way. I have pigeons, mostly ferals, and when I catch them in barns and can get to them, the flashlight doesn't bother them. I simply crawl along and when I get to one, shine the light on it and pick it up with my hands. Could take photo's of them anytime in the dark.