Little Owls!

I was lucky enough to get to photograph a family of little owls yesterday. The two chicks have just fledged so the family are quite active. The young ones spent quite a a lot of time up on a roof and in the gutter, disappearing and then popping up….. very funny! Luckily, one of them then flew down onto a tree stump and sat there for several minutes, giving me the chance to get a number of great shots. These owls are very comical… they do a lot of bobbing and have wonderful expressions. Their speckled plumage provides amazing camouflage and if it wasn’t for the fact I was with someone who was used to watching them, I am not sure I would even have spotted them.  I took lots of shots, of course, all with my new lens at the full 500mm. Some have been cropped slightly either to give a different perspective or to enlarge the image.  A wonderful afternoon that I will not forget in a long while. I can’t thank you enough, Paul  for sharing these special creatures with me.