Barn Owls at Welney, Norfolk.

27th February 2010

A 4.30am start and a 3 hour drive to meet up with Nigel Blake at Welney.

Thick fog made the drive difficult but the sight of a Barn Owl shortly after 7am soon improved matters. I've struggled to find Barn owls on my trips out to the Dee Estuary with only infrequent glimpses. So the thought of around 8 of them in close proximity was too good to miss especially as Nigel knows the area well and often runs his one to one tuition here.

Fortunately, I've got to know my new Canon 1D Mk4 very well now and having seen the superb iso performance this camera offers above the MK3 and 1DsMk3 I wasn't too concerned about the overcast light. Indeed, the image below, my first of the day taken at 07.45am, was taken at iso 2000.

The ability of the new sensor to become so sensitive and produce a highly acceptable image is very impressive.

I was surprised that the Barn owls stayed out hunting well past 11am, perhaps they knew it was going to rain in the afternoon, or perhaps they were just hungry, I don't know but it provided more opportunities to photograph these stunning birds.

Nigel and I split up in the afternoon heading off in opposite directions only to call each other when we had spotted something. Nigel was fortunate to spot a Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus, and once in position patiently waited for it before pressing the shutter. Click this link to see Nigel's picture.

I left shortly after 5pm as the rain started to fall, eventually arriving home at 9.15pm weary, but satisfied that I'd had a great first real experience of getting close to Barn Owls.

Click here to link to the images taken from the day.