A day photographing birds of prey .

I spent yesterday photographing 4 different birds of prey in a woodland . As i am not yet finished editing them all (over 800 images taken lol) i will add a few of the first bird that i photographed . This was the beautiful Barn Owl .

The day was a workshop that was organised by my good friend Steve Magennis . The idea was to get the various birds using the wonderful Bluebells as a nice backdrop .

For info on the Barn Owl look here  .

We had four birds in total to photograph on the day . Barn Owl , Kestrel , Buzzard and a Little Owl . As i have said i only have some images of the Barn Owl at the moment . But the others will follow.

We headed into the woodland at around 10.30am. And the Barn Owl was the first bird for us to photograph. We had about an hr and a half , placing the bird on various fence posts and well selected fallen tree branches . The display of  Bluebells was incredible , even though they were not fully out . The Barn Owl was really well behaved , sitting for us and making some amazing images . The sort of image that you would need to sit in a hide for a very long time to , maybe, get a decent image . So although these are not wild birds , it provides people like me , who don't have a hide or the patience to sit for a few days in a hide :-)

The Barn Owl was given a mouse as a treat , but didn't seem interested for a good while . Then when we headed further into the woodland , it decided it would put on a great show for us , by hanging onto the mouse and just 'showing off' !! You will see the photo attached .

There were a total of 5 of us that attended the workshop . Plus Steve and the falconer , Brian . The one bird that we had to keep a safe distance from was the Buzzard . Not because it was vicious . But it has a tendency to try and land on peoples heads if it wants to go for a little flight . And with talons that are very sharp . We all decided that it's better to be safe than sorry !!

If you are into your Bird photography and would be interested in attending one of Steve's workshops . I would highly recommend it . You will not be disappointed !! You can not fail to get good photos , even using a compact camera . If you have a decent digital slr camera , with a couple of good lenses , upto 300/400 mm . You will come away a very happy person . Just remember to take lots of memory cards , spare batteries and a good tripod . The tripod will be needed as the light level can drop quite a lot once you get deeper into the woods .

So here are a few of the Barn Owl . The others will follow over the next few days . Probably Tuesday onwards , as we are picking up a new puppy as a buddy for our Mabel . This i am very excited about :-)

 Bluebells look lovely in the background .

With the very dead mouse in it's beak . Posing for the photographers .

Thanks for looking in . And i hope you have enjoyed the images so far . My eyes are square from looking at the monitor all day . So it's time to shut the computer down lol .
View more images on  my website http://www.eternityimages.co.uk/Home.aspx

Cheers Mark.