Tawny Owl at Pool !

This must be a first !Taken last year.
Waiting for possible Fox or Badger, this turned up at the pool.
D100 Tamron 80 mm One flash head on the left ,4 foot up, three feet left of camera.
f11 350 ISO
The colours may be wrong and the focus off a bit but its not that easy in the dark ! This must be a unique shot.
First time it's been done I think.
So I'm famous !! Doubt it very much. In fact I doubt it a lot !
Got two pictures "useable " out of 5.
I feel honoured in a way to have at least seen this.
(or half seen it !.)
It shows owls bathe anyway. At least bird photography has proved something after all. !
Cheers
John

Well there's something you can easily go 10 life-times and never see - big thanks for sharing this one John

Always nice to see something unexpected, that's the joy of nature photography.
Thanks for sharing.

Tim

Thanks both.
This is the second shot I got. Forgot to mention. Used a red filtered bulb off a car battery.
Not very bright but just enough to see in the gloom.

JohnR

One hell of a capture John & an image rarely experienced. Capturing a Tawny Owl bathing just shows how relaxed your set up is.

Brilliant

Vince

Wow thats amazing! They're beautiful birds aren't they!

Both shots are great, wonderful capture!!

Hi John,

Awesome, simply awesome capture! It must have been a wonderful experience!

John - a remarkable capture - thanks for sharing it!!

Dave

Great shots John! There must be lots of behavior that goes unrecorded at night in this country. They have documentaries on the activities of urban wildlife and African big cats at night- not much else though.

Are these scanned prints or slides? They don't look like the output of a digital camera- the first has dust and a hair that look like they come from scanning (they could be on the camera's sensor, but should be more blurred at f11).

Hi John,

Thanks for sharing these. Great to see.

Cheers

Austin

Fantastic shot John and in my opinion you learn a lot when you start photographing wildlife.
John

Thanks for your interest.

Ben Yes , scanned , and not very well! I did notice the "detritus" on them but as it was meant as a behaviour/interest post I didn't bother too much. I find photographing a print can sometimes yield better results. I did make a slide copier from a tube and three close up lenses. ( Mainly as I couldn't afford a proper one.
As you say, it's amazing what can be seen at night- especially with the red light filter method. Mice especially can be very entertaining.
Cheers
Thanks again.
JohnR

What a unique moment to have witnessed and what a bonus to get it on film too.

Wonderful experience - even better to record it.

Very nice shots John , keep em coming

Andy...

Great beahavioural stuff John - put the hours in at a site and you never know what'll happen.



Mark

Well done John. Great to see

Great capture of a rarely seen event. Excellent.

Fascinating that they bathe, who would have thought. Well done for capturing the event.

Wow...wonderful and how exiting.
Owls in captivity like a bath so I am not surprised that wild owls do the same when it is safe to do so.