Heart-pounding Escape: Short-eared Owl Evades Jackdaw Attack 

You are very welcome.

Thank you for the feedback. I love the sounds of nature as much as the sights and put a lot of time into it. In another life I would be a professional wildlife sound recordist (not least because of the lighter weight equipment!).

The natural world never ceases to amaze me!

Thanks for your kind comments Phillip. Barn owls seem to be quite localised and anyway tricky to see in daylight. Haven't seen our local ones for months now. Last one I filmed I saw it get robbed by a buzzard one evening and then it never daylight hunted again the rest of the summer!

@@WildlifeInCloseUp I've been heading out at dusk on consecutive nights, staying until it gets too dark too see properly (well beyond what my DSLR will take) just to at least find one. I know there are at least 2 or 3 owl boxes within a quarter to half a mile away, so I've just chosen the most likely looking field for shrews and voles, with long grass, and waited patiently. I dare say it'll be my fieldcraft that lets me down. Someone with your experience of tracking and finding them would probably make light work of it or immediately know whether to move on or stay put. If I do eventually find any locally, I'll drop you a private message in case you want to film them.

@@philiplaw9747 I think you are on the right track. Never easy to see them out hunting in daylight. Sometimes you get an individual that seems to do it and late winter can sometimes produce a male hunting before dark to impress and feed a mate laying eggs, or in response to sheer hunger when long spells of overnight rain or snow cover forces them to hunt in daytime. But by far the best time for me has always been June in good vole years, when both adults have a big and well grown brood to feed. That's a rough guide though - there are always exceptions. Good luck! Note to anyone reading this: in UK you need a license to go near barn owl nests.

@@WildlifeInCloseUp Thanks, Stephen. Good to know you think I'm on the right track!

Sony EX3 recording to external Nanoflash recorder. Recording at 60fps for playback at 25fps. I have two tele lens I use for most of my work: Sigma 150-600 Sport and a legacy manual Canon 500 f4.5L - the latter is usually my favourite for following birds in flight. You need a good fluid head and good viewfinder too - It is very hard to do with a monitor. I also have a piece of wire attached to the lens hood that lets me line up the subject with my left eye and get it into the viewfinder (right eye) quickly. It takes a lot of practice, the hardest thing is to not try and hold the shot for too long, to let the subject leave the frame before you loose focus or framing. I still mess that up, trying to be too ambitious! But what would be the fun if you didn't? If your camera is APS or full frame 35mm then you have a problem because you will often need a focal length of much more than 600mm for birds since you cannot be too close to them when following for video.

@@WildlifeInCloseUp I have Sony A9 with 200-600mm and have been afraid to use it .. don't know if it tracks and focused well enough

@@DanOhPhotography I don't know of any camera that can focus track a bird in flight in closeup well enough for professional video production but i don't keep up with all the latest gear. Manual focus is the only way I know. I'm afraid your setup is not suited.