"You have to break the rules to get the best shot"

[Neil B]

Well, I posted in this thread somewhere some quotes from the barn owl trust which I think made me (personally) feel OK about sitting watching them from my distance.

Your tawny owls are not protected, so whilst there is still a "welfare" question (of which I'm sure there is no issue), there is no legal implications of whether you're disturbing them or not.

Gavin, i'm sure you're not the type of guy to go stupid chasing them about so just do what you do and if you're to close the bird will move away from you, as in forum tradition you will always get plenty of people who don't have a clue what they are talking about.
On a side note "Natural england" put up a load of owl boxes to increase the population of barn owls, the only problem was that there is not enough natural food source to accommodate the increased number of birds and they are now being found dead due to starvation.
I truly believe that Barn owls have bigger issues than a camera being pointed at them .

 

[Icee]

In my years of doing wildlife photography I have found that if you stand reasonable still they will come to you. I have had things like Kingfisher, fox and Sparrowhawk come to within a few feet of me so close that they were within my minimum focus distance.

 

[lartamax]

To the best of my knowledge not only are all raptors protected but so are their nest sites. Natural or man made nest boxes such as the owl. Any activity that could be deemed detrimental to the bird, eggs or fledglings is illegal. A bird afraid to come back and eggs get cold. Afraid to go to young don't get fed etc. The RSPB could clarify this but I am pretty confident his actions are illegal.

 

[ChloeG]

regardless of what animal it is in all photos you need to respect nature, do it on their terms. in my opinion you weren't in the wrong but i believe that the man who went up to the nest box was in the wrong, going that close to anythings young means that the animal may feel threatened and then the unfortunate outcome then happens to either the chicks or the idiot in the way of the parents. animals must be comfortable and not feel threatened to get the best shots and since photographers and people are the intruders they should do their best to make the animal feel okay or leave them alone.
i saw someone with the fawn stumbling across a birth can happen by mistake but i think a better course of action would be to move well well well out of the way especially if the mother was moving away

 

[Mandoo]

I don't think you did anything wrong, but the other guy is a t***. I definitely would try and find where they hunt though, you should be able to get some nice action shots if you can set up in the right place.