There must be something in the water!
Soakes, I can now join you by saying that I finally saw one!!!
I just went out to get the washing off the line, at 7:35pm and I always take my spotty but darn it I didn't take my camera! He was perched on a lower branch in a tree looking down into the grass. I held him in the spot light for a few seconds before he flew away......ah......sigh......such a beautiful bird!!
Jackie ;0)
Wow, maybe it is going to be the year of the owl!
I'm going to do a few more night walks and hope to see another one.
I would probably avoid shining a light directly at one if possible; they probably don't like that very much. ??
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
Hi Soakes, looking better already. I saw another owl at the top of our property (couldn't get a good look at him though)
I aslo use a red filter when I spotlight to minimise any adverse impact on the birds/animals.
Jackie ;0)
Without a photo it's hard to tell what the owl was. If you are not sure of ID, the Masked and Barn Owls are very easy to confuse. If you were near a clearing, fields etc you could have had a Barnie, although Masked also use open fields. Your area Jackie is a killer location for both Masked and Barn Owls. Though most likely, you did see a Barn Owl due to the probability factor, which is far more in the favour of a Barnie.
Generally I've never had problems with shining light on them, even their faces. Although consciously, I now only try to use a very narrow beam and aim at the legs/abdomen. Sometimes if they are a little further you cannot help shining light in their faces. I think it may be a similar thing as with call playback (some birds come in, some flee or some ignore it). In the light case, I've only had owls stay mostly, unperturbed. The only owl I've had not liking me coming close (before I had a really long lens) was a particular boobook.
We have recently tested using red filters on torches and our Canon cameras focuse absolutely superbly with the red filtered light. Far better than with no filter! Go figure. Must have something to do with the AF sensor liking the red end of the light spectrum.
Go Jackie!
Thanks Akos, I was thinking barn owl because he didn't seem that big, I would have been 8-10m away from him.
Not sure if this is correct but I read somewhere that barn owls carry their legs down when they fly and this owl was doing that (maybe all owls do???)
Maybe this pic might help (showing the location and branch he was sitting in)
Jackie
That looks fairly high. Is it? It is still hard to say to be honest. It was definitely one of the Tyto species, which is just awesome. Barn Owls tend to sit quite low over the ground when hunting, Masked Owls from my experience are higher. again, hard to tell without pics.
Hmmm...maybe 5-6m high. Thanks for all your info
One day I will get a photo. I did also see another owl lastnight on our property while I was spotting the YBG but didn't get that great a look.
Cheers, Jackie