Peregrine Falcons and Tawny Owls

Peregrine Falcons are extremely hard to photograph in flight so you can imagine that I was pleased to get this shot yesterday. This is a female….the "Falcon"…. males are called "Tiercels"….. they are hard to seperate in my opinion but at my Schedule 1. license site I had been watching the pair for a while and I knew which was which. Males are smaller than females but when they are not together I dont' find them easy to separate. In the evening I met up with Dave Stone who has a good Blog look here.  There are some nice pictures as well.  I took him to where I had seen Tawny Owls the evening before, they are not all that easy to see let alone photograph and I knew that Dave hadnt even seen one this year. When we got  to the lane, I have to confess that I was hopefu and quietly confident. But then we started to hear a bird, we knew immediately that it was close by. There was a right commotion coming from a nearby tree, 2 Jays were going mad, obviously unhappy about the owl which was also quietly calling in a massive old oak tree. It was hard to locate even though I was certain it was there. Then it flew and landed in another tree, it was hidden, or so it thought but we could see it through the oak leaves and tucked tight to the trunk as it peered at us. Dave got his photos and he was elated. (See them on his blog.)

I have to confess that it gave me a great deal of pleasure to be able to give him some success.