Owl of the day

The good times continued to roll today when I made a late, snap decision to drive up into the Cotswolds after owls. There was a lot of cloud and the light wasn't great, and several times en route I slowed right down and thought about turning round and abandoning the trip; but when I arrived both owls and photographers were out and about, and I was glad that I'd pressed on.

The light became steadily worse, and after an hour I decided that I'd had enough. It was difficult to leave when the owls were still hunting and the other photographers still shooting away - I had to avert my eyes from the field as I negotiated my passage past the parked cars and tripods - but I reminded myself that every shot taken is a file that then needs to be dealt with.

I'm pretty pleased with this, which I was able to capture because I was shooting hand-held, and when someone spotted a fly-past happening over the field on the other side of the road from where we were all standing, I was able to move across quickly enough to capture half a dozen shots, three of which I've kept. The sequence is here, if you're interested - and once again, if you have the time, this is better viewed full-screen.