RIP beautiful barn owl ..

It was my bird group this morning - we'd gone to the wolds, and after the class I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and carry on mooching about.

As I was about to turn into a main road I saw a dead barn owl on the top of the hedge on the corner.

I decided to take him as I know dead birds can often be useful to bird researchers. I put him in the front of the van and carried on looking for stuff to photograph. I got quite a decent shot of a pheasant ..

However when I got home I started to take a good look at the owl - and the more I looked at him the more beautiful he became ... it's such a shame he died - apparently many barn owls succumb to starvation in hard and wet winters.

I took many photos of him (you can see more on my Flickr link) .. he has such a variety of feather shapes and patterns and colours ..  a truly gorgeous bird. So soft and strokeable.

The Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme is sending me a prepaid box and he'll be sent to them to ascertain why he died ..

RIP gorgeous barn owl.