Little Owls in Wychbold
Thanks for having a look at my latest blog post! This time I've been down in Wychbold near Droitwich in the Midlands photographing little owls.
Little owls, aka owls of Athena / Minerva, are spread across most of mainland Europe, Asia and the north coast of Africa. They're small, as the name suggests, around 20cm in height and survive on a diet of insects, worms and small mammals such as mice. I was photographing them in early June when the adults were busy doing trips to and from the nest with worms and mice to feed the chicks.
The nest was set up in this beautiful old oak tree, on Brine Pit farm , with the hide just 10 metres or so away. I would recommend the hides for a visit. They're easy to get to being just off the M5 on a beautiful , peaceful farm surrounded in abundant nature with a selection of rustic old farm buildings.
The little owl wasn't the own bird interested in the worms that morning. Alongside a number of jackdaws, an attentive adult common woodpecker was feeding his large fluffy chick.
It was a perfect day for photography with beautiful morning sunshine through clouds illuminating the subjects who were out close to the hide constantly. The birds were very co-operative subjects, with beautiful backgrounds behind them. I think I broke my record for the number of pictures in a single day, I came away with around 4,000. It was one of those days where you know getting home and sorting through the pictures worth keeping is going to be a mammoth job!
I was shooting with a Canon R5, with the RF100-500mm lens. I took the pictures at the lowest aperture I could when zoomed in at between 350-500mm, which was usually f/7.1, to blur out the background. I tried to do a few in-flight shots at a faster shutter speed, although this was harder as the little owl tended to do very short, fast flights without any indication he was about to set off.
Anyway, I hope you like the pictures. If you have any recommendations for wildlife photography hides or other experiences in the UK please do let me know below in the comments. My next shoot is going to be seeing a badger sett in the peak district next month.
