Bird of Prey Challenge (1 Viewer)

[Farnboro John]

OK here's the rubbish Little Owl at maximum tweak before its not the picture I took

John

 

[Parabuteos lad]

cant see a little owl on that, just a tree (clutches at straws) lol

 

[Farnboro John]

Another Little Owl shot, this time with flash at a hopeless distance (its always worth a punt).

Also, I've just been to Flamborough for the South Landing Ficedula, and had a brief view of a Barn Owl of which I got a really rubbish shot. To my surprise, when I opened the year-list bit of my notebook to put the "P" against Barn Owl that I use to keep track of what I've photographed each year, it was already checked off. When I got home I found the attached lurking in the laptop.

12 Little Owl
13 Barn Owl

Won't be long before I'm hunting down migrant Montys and Honeys....

John

 

[June Atkinson]

What kit are you using? tha means you have 3 species more than i, will try for short eared and barn owls at some point in the week, where i normally go for these had reports on here of red kite and osprey at the weekend so fingers crossed

Yes, you should have a chance of Red Kite; they are dispersing from the areas of re-introduction.
Go to http://www.friendsofredkites.org.uk/page11.htm

to see how the regions relate to one another. Two of our kites went to Yorkshire, one of their kites joined our group and at present we have a Dumfries & Galloway kite with one of our kites in Hamsterley Forest in Co. Durham!!

Red Kites are a Schedule One species and as such, are protected by law. They must not be disturbed in the breeding season.

 

[Farnboro John]

Nipped out in the brief spell of spring weather yesterday and had a decent time, photographing Garden Warblers and also getting an improved Barn Owl. I also got Hobby for the year and even better it perched up so I could photograph it.

Apparently it has been klepto-parasitising the Barn Owls, which is a new bit of Hobby behaviour for me. Field Vole may even be an unrecorded prey item for Falco subbuteo!

14 Hobby

John

 

[Farnboro John]

A couple of improvements since the last post, just a case of going back to the same place in settled weather and setting up early to be ready for the moment.

I went to Selsey this morning where there were no seabirds moving and no migrants coming in. At Church Norton the only migrant in the churchyard was a Chiffchaff, though a Cuckoo could be heard clearly nearby. The best bird in the churchyard was a Stoat, which appeared from the hedge and posed in plain view for one second less than I needed to get a picture.

As I reached the harbour down the track from the car park, a Tawny Owl hooted rather hesitantly to my right from the small wood fringing the open harbour. It was about 1030 and bright sunshine. It called again so I wnadered along to about where I thought the call came from.

Of course, it then shut up completely, but within five minutes I heard the "sksssss, sksssss" of a downy youngster. It took me five minutes more to find that sitting in the sun on a substantial branch, by which time another birder who had heard the original hoot arrived: the two of us continued searching and I found the adult sitting much higher in a separate tree. Getting pictures of the juvenile was easy, but finding a clear path to the adult took a bit of manoeuvreing.

15 Tawny Owl

Pix below

John

Barn Owl X 2
Hobby
Tawny Owl Adult
Tawny Owl Juvenile

 

[Tri-Counties Birder]

A couple of improvements since the last post, just a case of going back to the same place in settled weather and setting up early to be ready for the moment.

I went to Selsey this morning where there were no seabirds moving and no migrants coming in. At Church Norton the only migrant in the churchyard was a Chiffchaff, though a Cuckoo could be heard clearly nearby. The best bird in the churchyard was a Stoat, which appeared from the hedge and posed in plain view for one second less than I needed to get a picture.

As I reached the harbour down the track from the car park, a Tawny Owl hooted rather hesitantly to my right from the small wood fringing the open harbour. It was about 1030 and bright sunshine. It called again so I wnadered along to about where I thought the call came from.

Of course, it then shut up completely, but within five minutes I heard the "sksssss, sksssss" of a downy youngster. It took me five minutes more to find that sitting in the sun on a substantial branch, by which time another birder who had heard the original hoot arrived: the two of us continued searching and I found the adult sitting much higher in a separate tree. Getting pictures of the juvenile was easy, but finding a clear path to the adult took a bit of manoeuvreing.

15 Tawny Owl

Pix below

John

Barn Owl X 2
Hobby
Tawny Owl Adult
Tawny Owl Juvenile

And I was that other birder! Nice to meet you John.

Cheers for the Tawnies! :t:

 

[Farnboro John]

And I was that other birder! Nice to meet you John.

Cheers for the Tawnies! :t:

A belated how d'you do! And my pleasure.

John

 

[Parabuteos lad]

Species 9 - Red Kite (including a leucistic one)
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff472/scott_allan1/DSC04264.jpg

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff472/scott_allan1/Untitled-1.jpg

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff472/scott_allan1/Untitled-1-1.jpg

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff472/scott_allan1/Leucistic.jpg

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

Nice shots PBL,

Rich

 

[Rob_D]

Nice shots PBL.

Surely you get at least triple points for the Leucistic one?

 

[Farnboro John]

Good work. A look of Gigrin Farm about the collection? The leucistic one is a bit of luck - its never there when I visit!

Cheers

John

 

[Parabuteos lad]

Yes, Gigrin Farm

 

[Farnboro John]

I have been putting some effort into the challenge over the last few days. I will put a full account of the trip on Vacational trips as there was a lot more to it than just BOP, so here are the relevant photos:

1-3 Red-footed Falcon (the late Derbyshire bird)
4-5 Ospreys at Loch of the Lowes

John

 

[Farnboro John]

And onwards to the North:

1-2 Snowy Owl
3 Hen Harrier

All of which in scoreline terms comes to:

16 Red-footed Falcon
17 Osprey
18 Snowy Owl
19 Hen Harrier

Your move PBL

John

 

[Parabuteos lad]

Fair to say i've lost haha

 

[Parabuteos lad]

but then again, ive got my driving test on friday so may increase my list from then, montagu's seen locally

 

[Farnboro John]

Fair to say i've lost haha

A most sporting response!

I have to say I have really enjoyed this spring's bird of prey photography and if we hadn't been competing I would probably not have justified going to the Hebs for the Snowy even to myself, so I thank you for provoking me into some of the best birding I've ever had.

Good luck with the driving test!

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Yesterday I took advantage of lovely evening sunshine to visit the local Barn Owls, whose four chicks are just fledging. They didn't disappoint, and a flyover Kestrel chose just the right route as well.

John

2 X Barn Owls

2 X Kestrel

 

[Rufio]

Lovely shots from both of you! enjoying the competitiveness!