Peregrines in flight

 These pictures wre taken at a distance of about 350ft so I am very pleased with the results (with a little help from photoshop). They speak highly of my Sony cameras and my 22 year old Sigma 500 lens.

They are taken using my binoculars as a rest on the roof of my car.

This one I had the camera trained on the sitting bird when the other flew in almost hitting its mate.

Barn owl

 Last night with nothing much to do I thought I would check on the peregrines, still not sure if they have young. When just as I was about to leave having packed all my gear into the car this barn owl appeared.

I quickly grabbed my camera and took these shots before it vanished into the woods.

 Wrong lens, wrong camera settings and failing light and with just a few seconds to get the shots off.

Still, now I know where to look and at what time so I shall be waiting with everything set up correctly and I bet it doesn't turn up.

Unbelievable!

I found this scene extraordinary, not that the peregrine was so close to the rabbit, the peregrine would be little threat to it, but the rabbit was half way up a cliff with no signs of how it got there. It must have fallen over the cliff edge, some 100ft down and survived and there it was having a meal quite unconcerned on how it was going to get back up, or down as the case may be.

Peregrines

Rarely do I catch both the male and female together. Its either one or the other. This leads me to believe that they have a nest nearby with young in it. First the male will feed then the female will arrive and have her lunch while the male stands by.

 She has what she wants.

Then flies off to the nest to feed her young. The trouble is that when she does this she disappears from view and I don't see her again.

My evening walk.

I went for my usual evening walk. The pain killers that I have to take for my gout were working well today. On the way I found this bullfinch having a good time in a crab apple tree. There was a female with him but she was shy and kept herself hidden.

Egyptian goose was a bird that I hadn't seen for a long time when I came across this pair. After a lot of noise and wing flapping the male failed to interest the female and so they went their different ways.

It was a different matter with this pair of black backed gulls. After chasing her around for half an hour he finally got his way. When he had finished he just flew off into the sunset and left her sitting all alone.

Missing the shorties

One of the classic birds that I get each winter is the short-eared owl which I love to photograph but this winter they didn't come. They usually arrive late in the year and stay until spring. This year I spent a lot of time through the winter months looking for them but no such luck. These pictures were taken  last year when we had about ten birds locally.

 They are quite used to people walking their dogs and will fly quite close. They are usually active in the early afternoon and late into the evening.

 This one, after I had taken several shots passed over me just a few feet above my head.

I am posting these pictures as it is so quiet nature-wise and I have a lot of difficulty finding anything to photograph. The local peregrines are confusing me as to whether they are nesting or not. I rarely see them as a pair, mainly just the male so the female could be sitting but I can find no trace of the nest site. I shall keep looking.