Behind the image: Tawny owl in a tree

For the last couple of years, I have been hearing the delightful twit-twoo’s of tawny owls near my home, but I couldn’t work out where specifically they were residing. One early summer morning, I found myself in the graveyard of my local church where I could hear its hourly bells from my house, and from where I assumed the calls of the tawny owls were coming from also. Despite it being so close to home, I don’t find myself there very often even though I know there are a number of special species that I have seen there on other occasions — hedgehogs, great spotted woodpeckers, and evidence of rabbits by their droppings, to name a few. And then, until recently, tawny owls!

I was able to find evidence of at least one tawny owl being present in the graveyard, by finding a number of feathers that may have most likely come off the owl during its moulting period — this occurs once its chicks have left the nest and the parent can return to preening itself more regularly— as well as an owl pellet that contained fur and bones of small rodents that the bird can’t digest. I then began to scan the towering trees above me. After just a few minutes of looking through the large multitude of swaying branches and leaves, I saw a pair of big, black, round eyes staring down at me. I was quickly filled with delight at seeing a tawny owl in the daytime! I slowly backed away to reach for my tripod to place my camera on, all the while this tawny owl was looking down with curiosity. I pointed the lens at the owl and in between recording footage and taking images, I held its gaze every now and then.

I like to include some of the natural surroundings with whatever subject I am photographing. As the chestnut tree the owl was sitting in was filled with bright green leaves, I did find it tricky to get a clear shot of the owl’s face through the foliage. On top of that, it was a windy morning so the leaves and branches were moving about constantly. I waited until the wind dropped slightly, and then took a few images of the owl through the foliage before the wind moved the leaves about again. I really like how the tawny owl’s face is framed up nicely by the leaves, with the sense of the viewer also being immersed within the leafy surroundings with the large eyes of the tawny owl peering through them!