Close call

Today's late afternoon visit to the owl field was a triumph of experience over hope: I had good reasons for not going (not least the weather forecast, which changed several times during the day, and always for the worse), but I felt pretty sure that if the rain held off the Shorties would be out hunting at some point. I don't actually know that they can predict bad weather coming in, but it seems likely that they have an instinct for it, and if so I thought they'd want to feed today so that they can stay under cover through tomorrow and Friday.

When I got out of the car, just after half past three, the light was appalling but it wasn't actually raining, and though there wasn't much happening a friend told me that there were three Short-eared Owls around somewhere. I was still waiting for one of them to oblige me with a fly-past when a local chap stopped his car and told me that there was a Barn Owl hunting down by the farm, so I abandoned the main field and walked down to look for it. By the time I reached the spot he'd indicated the Barn Owl had disappeared, so I started to walk back up to the main road, still peering over the wall into the rough grass of what we all call the Barn Owl field for any sign of it. I was so surprised when this Shortie suddenly rose from the ground just a short distance away and flew straight towards me, that I think I might actually have yelped. What with my panic, and the poor light, and the owl's cryptic colouring, I made a pretty poor job of keeping focus on it, but I managed a dozen or so reasonable images before it went past me and away into the far distance - which in the circumstances is probably more than I deserved.

A little while after this one of the Barn Owls came out and made several hunting circuits of the main field, but by then it was so dark that my ISO was through the roof, and most of the shots I took of it have already gone in the trash. This doesn't actually worry me though, because while I know people who absolutely adore them, personally I don't feel the same passion for a Barn Owl as I do for a Short-eared Owl (that face! those eyes!), and as I got my Shortie of the day - albeit by the skin of my teeth - I'm happy to call my hour on the scarp a success.