Owl photography queries (1 Viewer)

I live in an area where there are quite a few owls - mainly tawnies, but a few barn owls too. The barn owls are more obvious to see and tend to be out in the open more. I have had one attempt at photographing barn owls - see http://www.roslinnature.com - which I was quite pleased with, considering the pics were taken using the camera's pop-up flash. I use a Canon 20D, and a 100-400mm IS lens. The photos were taken at 1/250 sec, f5.6, ISO1600.

My queries are as follows:

(i) the owl seemed quite undisturbed by my flash. The picture was taken from the roadside, and I guess this bird was used to car headlights etc, so a small camera flash would not seem unusual to it. But if I use a more powerful flash, is that likely to be a problem ? I do not want to upset the owls in the process of photographing them.

(ii) I've had a look at the Canon Speedlite flashes, and there are several different types. I would want a flash that was good out to 30-40m, and that could be used in conjunction with my current kit. Any advice about what to buy ? And is there anything around that does the job, at a cheaper price than the Speedlites ?

(iii) Tawny Owls. They hoot and hoot and hoot all around my area and I can never see them when I want to! Short of buying a night vision scope, any tips about how to see tawnies ?

Many thanks,

Neil

For 1. I don't think a more powerful flash will disturb the owl, my flash has never seemed to disturb birds, It's my belief that they're used to bright flashes from lightning.

2. For that distance I think the most powerful of the Canon flashguns, the 580EX, would be best. You could also get one of those fresnel lenses for the flash, the "better beamer" to focus the flash to better suit the telephoto lens. http://www.birdsasart.com/accs.html#BEAMER

I can't help with 3 though... No tawny owls around where I live.