Marsh Harriers and Short-eared Owls

I had planned a lot for the easter weekend and it fully meet my expactiations.

On Saturday morning I was able to get some great images of the Bluethroat and Reed Bunting. Then in the afternoon I took another attempt for the Short-eared Owls. I'm really fascinated by those birds. However the weather wasn't that well and there were some very heavy rainshowers. I missed a shot of owl sitting on a pole in the heavy rain, as it flew away shortly after I arrived.
I was not really satisified with the results of that afternoon, so I gave it a sencond try on Sunday. But this time I went to Belgium to photograpgh the owls, as I was already in the area to visit my family. This time I had a nice time with the Owls and one of the 2 owls gave me quite a great show.
Then on Monday when I went back to Amsterdam I made a visit to location where Marsh Harries are breeding and they are busy with collecting nesting material at the moment. At this time there very good chances to get some nice flight images of the Harriers. The Harriers were not so active as I hoped but still I managed to get a few great shots.

Short-eared Owls

Marsh Harriers

I will see what the next weekend will bring. For the moment I'm not really sure what I will do. Maybe I go to Texel for a day or to the Purple Herons, which have arrived last week here in NL or maybe something else.

Sebastian Erras
Wildlife Photography Sebastian Erras
www.naturfoto-erras.de
Read more

Short-eared Owls - Part III

On sunday i took another attempt to photograph Short-eared Owls, but this time I didn't went to Belgium, but stayed in the Netherlands and went to Zeeland, an area in the south-west of the Netherlands. The closer I got to the coast the better got the weather and it seemed to be the right decision to go there.

I arrived a little earlier to examine the area a little bit, as it was my first time at this location. Then in the late afternoon the first short-eared owl appeared. It came flying really close along the road and gave us (yes in the Netherlands you are most of the time not the only photographer) a great show. However the area was pretty big, so the owls were flying around and sometimes you had to wait half an hour until the owl came back from its tour, but who wouldn't wait for that short for a short eared owl. This time the owls came really close , sometimes to close for 700mm and I had a hard time following them with my Wimberley on the window mount. I wish I hadn't changed the AF settings of my 1DIIn to a bit faster reacting AF, because I usually use a slow setting in AIServo mode and it works well for me, but this time I experimented a little and unfortunately I missed some great shots. I had quite some shots where the AF picked the background instead of the owl. But lesson learned :-).

I hope that the owls will stay in this area a little longer and then I will give it another try, because I still don't have the images I want. :-)

Sebastian Erras
Wildlife Photography - Sebastian Erras
www.naturfoto-erras.de

Read more

Short-eared Owls - Part II

So today I took another trip to Belgium to photograph my favorite subject for the moment, the short-eared owls. The weather was great, although it became a little misty in the evening.
I had to wait for 3 hours until they finally showed some action. There were at least 2 owls present and one was sitting for over an hour on a pole and I feared that the owl would stay for the rest of the day.

But luckily it was not like that and I finally get some great images of these birds. I got really close to get the shots of the owls I wanted, but I'm still missing some shots.

I definetly had a great day today with the Short-eared owls and hope that they will stay at this location for a longer period, because it is fascinating to watch these beautiful birds of prey.

Sebastian Erras
Wildlife Photography - Sebastian Erras
www.naturfoto-erras.de

Read more

Short-eared Owls

Short-eared Owls in Belgium

I have spent the last months a few days at the belgian coast to photograph Short-eared Owls (asio flammeus) there. It was my secon encounter , after one short fly-over of a Short-eared owl I witnessed in the north of the Netherlands.
At my first visit to this area in December I was not only lucky enough to see a Snowy Owl, quite a rare visitor to Belgium, but also saw 5 different Short-eared Owls at one spot in action. In the late afternoon this birds start to get active and fly over the polders in this area looking for prey. It is really a fascinating view to see this beautiful birds flying over the fields and then abruptly changing direction to catch their prey, mainly mice, on the ground.

The images above were taken on my first visit of the short eared owls to Belgium in December 2008.

Then in January I went to Belgium, as it is quite close to my grandparents, a couple more times and a great time with these birds. I haven't made the image(s) I wanted to take of this birs, but it will definetly not be the last time that I will go to Belgium and I hope that the short eared owls will stay at this place for a while.

Short eared Owl - asio flammeus - Sumpfohreule - Velduil

Read more