A Tale of Three Birds

Three very special birds. 

Number 1

I went to Scotland hoping to see various birds again. The first bird to feature in this blog was not on my ''hoped for'' list. It wasn't a bird I expected to see and it wasn't even a year tick. But I had never seen one fly before. Previously they had always been deeply hidden in undergrowth. Often I had only seen bits of them! This experience made my Scottish week so memorable. That is the wonder of birds: always be ready for the unexpected...

...like a long-eared owl flying at dusk in a field next to your hotel...

Can you spot it? Right-hand side on a tree trunk. It liked to fly down to the roadside and watch the traffic...'ears' up!

This first set were taken in near darkness at 1600 ISO mainly at about 250-300th of a second so sharpness isn't perfect...but I think the photos are great given the light available. The following evening the bird performed again. It was a little later. I pushed the ISO up to 5000, a level unprecedented for me. Here's the best of them. Again the bird started with a look at the road... ...and finally I found this one when the bird came quite close.

Number 2

Fast forward to October 7th when I decided that instead of going to Flamborough as planned I'd go to Haltwhistle in Northumberland to see a bee-eater. It was further than I realised and when I got there the reported location was deserted. However after about ten minutes a group of birders were seen on a footbridge. I headed over...

Number 3

Thursday October 11th: late afternoon on Seaton Common. Second attempt to catch the short-eared owls hunting...

ISO 2500 in fading light.

Well, that's it. I suppose you could call it the long and the short of it. Till the bee-eater came along. 

252 UK 2018