What is it with owls?
2021 has been a year of chasing photographs of owls. I was delighted to find a pair of barn owls not far from my home, and spent many evenings and early mornings of the summer looking for them. The pair seemed content to buzz dog walkers and photographers alike, so it became a regular challenge to capture their majestic flight. The area they hunt across is huge, so many nights the reward was only a glimpse of them in the distance. Football match nights were the best, as it seemed every other human stayed in to watch telly.
I have also been lucky enough to find a pair of short eared owls - first before they left the UK for the summer, and now more recently as they have returned for the winter. The first time I ever saw a short eared owl was a very close encounter, I stepped off a mound between two fields and discovered an owl had been sitting in the long grass I was stepping into. Not surprisingly I did not get shots as the owl flew up and took off. So this year the short eared owl has been a particular ‘target’ for me, happily one I have managed to at least in part fulfil. In common with barn owls they will fly past, look straight at you, and disdainfully fly on. It is those moments where eyes meet that make owls so fascinating. October the owls returned, and for a few days made their daily flights out to hunt. Sadly they have moved again - I am hoping they will return again soon for the winter.
I’d be remiss to not mention the little owls. Little owls really live up to their name. I have been lucky enough to see them often in recent years, though sad to say the regular haunts to me locally have proved to be barren this year. They are the master of the intense stare, daring you to blink first. If there weren’t so little they’s be quite intimidating. They are very big personalities in a very small body. I came across one on a first track one evening when I was driving away after some astro photography. No mind the size difference of me in a Jeep to a little owl - he held his ground and stared right back without moving… I drove around. Little owls have been breeding in the same area I have been spotting Barn Owls, and so I have had numerous sightings this year.
Little Owl, Berkshire, UK. June 2021