In the very first post on this blog, I mentioned the Tawny owls that regularly roosted in the large conifers that mark the boundary of the garden. They are a pair, one of them is more skittish than the other and will fly off if you hang around to long. It's mate, tends to pretend you aren't there while keeping a half open eye on you but does tolerate me trying to take photos of it. We were fortunate a couple of years ago to take some pictures of branching chicks in the trees (you can find that post
here) but the adults themselves are elusive.
Tawny owls in the area appear to be thriving. You can hear them calling when darkness falls and their calls come from all directions, warnings for others to keep out of their territory, Our neighbour has told me that he can hear eight or nine of them when returning from the village pub. We see them land in the tree outside the bedroom window but they are gone before you can get a camera trained on them. They have a couple of trees in the garden that they favour to sleep in during the day. At this moment in time, they have also added our neighbour's willow tree as one of their roosting spots.
They've chosen well as they pick the most photograph unfriendly location. High up, in the gloom and blocked by thin branches (the camera tends to focus on these so the owls almost always manage to be out of focus).
The picture below is one of the better shots I've taken as it the owl decided to sun itself in a different tree that was relatively unobscured.
Hopefully, one day I'll get the opportunity to get a perfect shot of one or both of them.
This post is dedicated to my older brother. Every time he pays a visit, the owls aren't around and he was beginning to think they were fictitious.
