Another SEO Visit

Saturday was to be a day of two halves.  In the morning I would spend some time at the coast and then visit the Short Eared Owls in the afternoon.  Apart from a brief spectacular sunrise over the north sea, the morning proved uneventful so eventually headed inland to make the most of the ideal conditions to see the SEO’s.

On arrival, it wasn’t long before I saw my first owls though they were much more spread out than the last time I went there at the end of last year, as well as further away from view.  Most were just perched, awaiting dusk. Although the SEO is diurnal these ones don’t seem to be that active until near the end of the daylight hours.  Although it was hard to tell, I guessed at around 9 or 10 of them spread about and in various forms of activity and very vocal.

I switched between two different viewpoints during the afternoon.  Southward facing where they were closer (though mostly perched) and more numerous but the sun was shining towards me and into my lens and giving awkward harsh light and Northward where the light was perfect but they were much further away.

Flyby – notice the perched SEO in the background (below)

The next four images were taken looking Northwards.  They look like they were taken on a different day from the others but were simply in the opposite direction.  The low sunlight gives a much more nicer warmer light and so pleasing image than the much cooler, duller images that were taken with the lens almost directly into the low sunlight.

As the sunlight started to fade, the sporadic activity stopped as the owls seemed to find themselves each a fence post or branch to settle on, evenly spaced out over the area, as if staking their own claims ready to start hunting at dusk.

Eventually, with my cameras ISO already pushed to its maximum but only getting 1/100th of a second, and the remaining sun light disappearing behind some clouds, I called it a day.  Hopefully, I will get to see the owls one more time before they disperse as Spring approaches.