Tawny owl

[nanila]

[Grainy photo of a short-eared tawny owl sitting on a lawn]

I know this isn't the greatest photo of all time. In my defense, I did take it from behind a dusty windowpane in an upstairs bedroom where I was crouched breathlessly lest I frighten it off.

There've long been barn owls living at my partner's parents' home in rural Norfolk, but I'd never seen any other type of owl there. I was surprised, therefore, to see this tawny owl (h/t to shapinglight for corrected identification) sitting on their lawn at dusk a couple of weeks ago. I worked out that it was watching a group of four partridges who were pecking through the pebbles in the drive, closer to the house. They seemed a rather optimistic target, given that the owl wasn't much bigger than they were.

The owl flew off and returned to the lawn several times whilst I watched, but never made a move on the partridges, who eventually moved onto the roof of the house and over to the other side.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

I did take it from behind a dusty windowpane in an upstairs bedroom where I was crouched breathlessly lest I frighten it off.

Heh, I can relate. It's always a toss up whether going for the camera and trying to get a photo will just scare the birds off so we can't even watch them.

Cute owl! We must have some in the area but I've yet to see any in the decade plus that we've been here.

[nanila]

Fortunately I was able to twist around slowly, grab my camera off the dressing table and lower myself even further behind the wall that was partially obscuring me. I got about 10 snaps before it flew off, and this was the best one.