A Barn Owl after dusk.

Imagine you are me, (just for a second).......... you are obsessed with birds and wildlife, and since the advent of digital equipment, photography.  So much so that you gave up painting because from time to time you take a photo that does it for you.  You've had a great life and the only thing that you regret is not being intelligent enough to have been a professional wildlife photographer, instead of a musician!  I came to the conclusion that the only thing that separates me from these professionals is opportunity and the time that they have to be patient!   So, I know where there is a barn used by Barn Owls, there's the opportunity, and now having retired as that musician, I just need to apply my patience which I have in abundance. I have learnt that the Barn Owls emerge at about the time when it's too dark to get a good close up photograph, as if they do it deliberately! But, they are stunningly white so a photo in the dark is a real possibility. At 8.30 I arrived at the site and sat in a hide that I have had set up for a week.  It gives a clear view of the barn and I am just hoping that eventually I will get lucky and a bird will perch nearby and give me a good shot, but you know what, as good as that would be it's just amazing to get just a glimpse, and terrifically exciting.   It was around 9.20 when, at the barn entrance, perched on a rotting part of the frame was a magnificent Barn Owl.  My eyes were adjusted to the gloom and my "night vision" was good enough to see it clearly. I quickly focused in, adjusted the camera and tried really hard to get a photo.  The settings were extreme to say the least. I adjusted the sensitivity of the camera with fumbling fingers, in an effort to be able to get some kind of photo. What you see above is exactly what I saw, a really beautiful elusive creature.