A Little Owl

Seen tonight on my wanderings. It was on the ground in a country lane and flew into a nearby tree as I approached.

Also seen , before it went dark , about two dozen Swallows feeding over a cornfield then perching on telegraph wires , and a flock of around 50 Goldfinches.

Great spot and capture. I really like the way hes looking at you in the second shot. You captured a great picture with good colour and detail considering how dark it looks.

Thanks Andrew. I use a SB800 flashgun. Plenty of power to illuminate subjects at long range. This owl was about 50 feet away , beyond the reach of typical built-in flash units. At 35mm you get a guide number of 38 (metres) from the SB-800 compared to 12 with the pop up flash on the D90 camera which is itself quite powerful.

Nice one pal, well spotted, love the second one.

Excellent capture, especially the second one. The enlargement is brilliant with great light on the eyes. You do seem to see such a lot on your nightly wanderings.

Brilliant capture, Galatas. The flash has illuminated it beautifully. I love the way it's turned its head through 180 deg to look at you. I've never seen one at night before.

I find bird watching in the light hard enough Galatas, but in the dark. Great spot let alone getting pictures as well.

Superb!! Gorgeous little birds!

Thanks to everyone. It's amazing how often things you haven't seen for a while suddenly turn up twice in quick succession. I missed getting a photo of the Little owl I saw on Friday night only to have this one turn up on Sunday in a completely different area. Earlier in the week I saw my first ever Black-tailed Skimmer and another the very next day , again at a completely different location.