This Barn Owl encounter, was a 'spiritual' experience!

March 07, 2023

Over the past two weeks, I have spent many hours each day, stalking Barn Owls. On each occasion, they teased me with glimpses in the darkness, but refused to appear in any kind of daylight. With just one day left of my trip, I recieved a 'tip off' of a Barn Owl on someones land that had recently been appearing late in the afternoons. Luckily for me, the land owner was as keen to see pictures of the bird, as I was to take them!

So armed with all of my gear, I arrived on his land an hour before we anticipated the birds to show and set up my camera between two old barns and behind a gate, which would give me a good view of the field, whilst also providing me with some 'cover'. Wildlife photography is as frustrating, as it is beautiful and the forecast for the evening was not great. As the cloud cover increased and the light fell, I was anticipating yet another failed attempt to photograph these stunning birds and with my camera settings pushed to the extreme, this was it, my last chance on this trip......And then suddenly, there it was, this ghostly spirit of the bird world had arrived, and what a bird it was!

It started to hunt as soon as it arrived and almost immediately caught a vole at the far end of the field. Fortunately for me, it then flew back towards me with the vole, before disappearing into a tree to consume it.

The poor vole never heard it coming!

The Barn Owls incredible eyesight and totally silent flight, gives it a huge advantage over its prey, which has no idea that it is about to become another meal. Watching Owls hunt, is an experience of pure wonder and something that few ever see and even fewer truly appreciate. The last UK survey of Barn Owls (carried out in 1997), estimated that just 4,000 pairs were left and although numbers are thought to have increased since then, they are still a rare bird and must be protected.

Nesting sites have changed dramatically over the past 50 years and as old barns have almost all become converted to homes for humans, the Barn Owl is now more commonly found nesting in tree trunks. Of course, we can still help these wonderful birds and if you have space and a suitable site on your land, please consider putting up a nesting box for these and other birds. - "Build it and they will come"!

This is the second Owl to arrive and is a male. - Notice the 'ring' on its leg.

So, back to my evening, and to everyone's amazement, a second Barn Owl arrived and this one was 'ringed'. This was a male and although difficult to distinguish the difference, the male has a cleaner white body, whilst the female has occasional small dark spots, as can be seen in some of these images.

Note the small black dots on this females body.

I spent around 30 minutes, photographing this pair before they disappeared as ghostly and silently as they had arrived. The following shots will hopefully allow you to share my 'spiritual' encounter with them!