I have been gathering more beautiful shots of our local owls and promise that I’ll post some very soon. The owls are my early morning walks. Buzzards are the treat at lunchtime.
I hadn’t planned on going too far, but a buzzard caught my eye as I left the office and I followed in its general direction to some downland at the top of Moulsecoomb. It’s good buzzard territory. Woodland and open fields. Fine for buzzards, and there are plenty of crows too. They don’t always get on.
The mobbing is more of a joust than anything serious, but the crows are defensive and no doubt have young to protect. There were several rounds of this and each time the buzzards and crows retreated to separate areas of woodland.
Here’s a more conventional shot of the buzzard in flight.
As for the owls… here’s a taster.
Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
Darko
29 Apr 2016Wow, that crow was very aggressive, never seen them actually attacking raptors before. I’ve seen them bullying them but never coming that close!
There was an interesting TV show over here about owls and what is their secret for being such an successful hunters (they live everywhere in the world except in Antarctica). Having an excellent hearing – they can hear a prey under the snow – and night vision are main advantages but I didn’t know that they can fly almost without any sound. Shape of their wings and feathers give them the ability to be so quiet that even very sensitive microphones barely picked up some of the sound. It was so interesting 🙂
Words
30 Apr 2016Darko, the crows round here do that quite a lot, but I think they just get close rather than physically do anything.
Owls are amazing. You can’t really judge the silent flight with the shorties…. too windy and too much other sound. We did have a barn owl fly over the garden a couple of months ago. Now that was spooky… nearly dark, just a pale shade gliding over… and not a sound at all.