Field of Dreams 2

There is no doubt that spending time with your subject leads to better photographs. You find out where and when to be there. Rich Cornock's field (see last post) came to my attention because of reports of nesting barn owls, and sure enough there was a nest box and 4 young. I hoped to get some shots of the adults hunting over Rich's field, but I understand they often don't hunt next to the nest site, and the adults never seemed to appear in the daytime - not like those Norfolk birds I keep seeing photos of! So I've been thwarted in that regard, despite quite a lot of hours trying. You could see the young sitting on the nestbox from across the field though - a lovely sight. Sadly the when to be there was after dark with an infra-red camera, and the where was somewhere else!

I dreamed of getting a picture like this, but that's a job for a hawk and owl centre I guess!

But ............ they've all fledged now, and walking past the woods the other day I was thrilled to see this bird in an oak tree. Brilliant.Rich has put up some more nestboxes in the area, so hopefully now the young have dispersed they may set up their own territories nearby.

In the recent couple of years he's also had nesting kestrels and green woodpecker, as well as the usual tits, etc.

I'm now eagerly awaiting the arrival of the winter finch flocks - last year they included both siskin and brambling, neither of which I've got a decent picture of. Fingers crossed. I did see this blackcap though ......

and a surprisingly accommodating wren.