BEAUTIFUL BARN OWLS

   I've been spending quite a bit of time recently down on the marshes in the lower Waveney valley watching and photographing Barn Owls with varying success but yesterday evening all those hours paid off with my best experience yet with these amazing birds. It all started off quietly enough with an owl appearing as the sun lowered down in the early evening sky and the gentle breeze almost disappeared altogether. The owl hunted over the scrape and surrounding fields at SWT Carlton marshes and I positioned myself by a gate to observe and hope that it would fly within camera range. After a while the Barn owl dropped into the long grass but emerged a few seconds later without any prey and flew directly to my left and perched on a fence post no more than 25 yards away from me.

   Moving very slowly I turned round and got behind the camera and took a few shots fully expecting the owl to fly off as soon as the shutter was pressed but to my amazement it turned, looked directly at me as I held my breath and then carried on surveying the field. I took some more shots and the owl moved along the fence post a bit before taking off into the and diving down some 50 yards away. A minute or so so elapsed and then the bird flew up with a vole in its talons and returned to the same perch again.

   Not believing my luck I was now furiously snapping away with the camera without the owl taking much notice although it could easily hear the shutter clicking away. It began to swallow the vole and made several attempts to gulp it down but appeared to struggle with the last bit and after a minute or so of trying the vole was regurgitated before somebody walking along the footpath disturbed the owl and it flew off to a nearby tree to consume its meal in peace. By far and away my best encounter with a Barn owl giving me some fantastic photographs to remember it with.

FARNE ISLANDS TRIP

   Recently a trip to the Northumberland coast provided some excellent opportunities to take photographs of species that I had not previously seen or recorded. We arrived at our hotel at Bamborough Castle in the late afternoon following a long trip up by minibus where we checked in, dumped our bags, grabbed photographic gear and headed down the road to Seahouses and the inner harbour to see the very obliging Eider duck that seem to spend most of the year there. We were lucky with the light and the receding tide and also the fact that there were several female Eiders with their recently fledged offspring to observe along with a few handsome males. Getting low down on the beach I had close encounters with the birds as they foraged along the shoreline hunting for food amongst the recently exposed sand and rocks especially as the light faded and the low sun provided a glow to the ducks.

  We were supposed to spend the next day out on the the Farne Islands but gale force winds meant that the boats were not sailing so we drove along to Holy Island and Lindisfarne and had a walk around although the wind prevented any chance of using the cameras to any effect but I must admit the drive over the causeway was interesting and several species were observed at a distance.
  On the Sunday the winds had eased somewhat but as we had to drive home we were limited to a morning trip out to Inner Farne Island but it was well worth it. On arriving at the island we rushed over to the areas frequented by the Puffins and I spent the majority of my time photographing these amazing little birds trying to get pictures of them with beaks full of sandeels for their chicks that spend their first few weeks underground in burrows. Each time a Puffin would arrive with food they had to avoid the Black backed Gulls that were trying to rob them of their sandeels before diving into the burrows.

  I also had the chance to photograph Shags on the island who were sitting on their nests amongst the rocks but all too soon we had to return to the boat for the return journey. On the way back to the boat I passed a pair of Fulmar so grabbed the chance to picture them too and when on the boat the captain passed very close to the cliffs where a few Kittiwakes were nesting along with Guillimots and Razorbills. A tiring trip back followed and I arrived back in Beccles at about 9pm but it was a great weekend and I would certainly like the opportunity to return and get onto the other island to picture the colony of Arctic Terns.