Hen Harrier v Short-eared Owl

A trip out this morning in the lovely clear frosty weather let me witness a confrontation between a Hen Harrier and a Short-eared Owl. The owl had managed to catch a vole which the Harrier was trying to steal from it. It didn't succeed and eventually both went their seperate ways. The fighting shots are fairly well cropped so I just picked out some of the best from the sequence. I always considered the harrier to be much larger than the Owl, but these show that they are quite similar in size.

My Favourite Images

I thought I would do a series of posts from time to time to showcase some of my favourite images taken over the years.

Alpine Swift
A rare bird in the UK, this one turned up locally in 2006. As with all fast flying small birds it was hard work, so I was very pleased with this shot.

Common Buzzard
I caught sight of this flying bird whilst driving. Quickly stopping the car I just managed to catch it banking round in the perfect low winter sunlight.

Bittern
I Have spent hundreds of hours trying to photograph the elusive Bittern without achieving any decent results. I struck lucky on this day with three flying around, giving some spectacular views and photo opportunities.

Arctic Tern
Anyone who has visited the Farne Islands in Northumberland will be familiar with sights similar to this image. I like this one because of the darker, cloudy background which makes the bird stand out.

Black-tailed Godwit
Its always nice to get a good reflected image. It can take some time though, especially of a stationary subject as birds don't tend to stand still for long.

Barn Owl
This was taken on the local marsh  where the bird was catching small mammals for it's young. Due to the light direction I went for a silhouette type shot which worked well with the setting sun.