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Image-of-the-Day by Subject
Birds - Other Owls Page 1
Image of day on 25 Dec 2008
A little Christmas day special.
This year has been exceptional for Dragonflies and Raptors,
so here is a little montage of birds:-
| Osprey | Skylark | Red Kite |
| | Tawny Owls | |
| Short-eared Owl | Little Owl | Sparrowhawk |
.jpg)
Ref: 20081225_bird montage from top left - osprey+skylark+red kite+sparrowhawk+little owl+short-eared owl+tawny owls(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 19 Mar 2015
at 16:02 Image of day on 27 May 2015
We found this Owl Pellet at the bottom of the meadow post.
You can see it speckled with the tiny claws and other fragments
of the Rodents the Owl as eaten. We didn't know whether this is
Barn owl or Tawny owl Pellet - it is too big for a Little Owl and was
most likely one of the owls we 'see' on the post.
Owl Pellets are ejected from the mouth & are really quite clean.
We stored the pellet while we found out how to identify, dissect it,
and then put together some suitable kit to photograph the result.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20150527_df3_20150319_1602_007 owl pellet at bottom of meadow post (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 09 Nov 2008
at 08:39 Image of day on 24 Nov 2008
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Ref: 20081124_dc1_20081109_0839_057 short-eared owl in flight(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 09 Nov 2008
at 08:39 Image of day on 24 Nov 2008
A tramp across the adjacent field startled this Short-eared owl in
the grass perhaps 50m ahead. A new sighting for us here.
Apparently they are often seen in daylight. It flew about for a
minute or two before departing.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20081124_dc1_20081109_0839_036 short-eared owl in flight of grass (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 06 Jan 2016
at 03:12 Image of day on 09 Feb 2016
This is our first sighting of a Short-eared Owl inside our plot, and only our second record in
the 25 years we have been here, so don't hold your breath for the next!
The previous sighting was over what was then over pasture on 9 Nov 2008 which
you can see for 24 Nov 2008 at
http://www.moorhen.me.uk/imgofday/arch 2008 nov.htm
 1+3 of 3 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20160209_d01_20160106_0312_052+0315_056_fb6 short-eared owl on meadow post for 4 minutes (selected) 1+3 of 3 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 06 Jan 2016
at 03:15 Image of day on 09 Feb 2016
The face of the Short-eared Owl is very striking, so here is a larger version of the
bird on the right.
From a page as http://www.owl-help.org.uk:-
The very small & often unseen ear tufts from which the Short-Eared Owl gets its name have
nothing to do with hearing but are used to communicate mood to would-be aggressors.
This bird is on the Amber list of species.
 3 of 3 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20160209_d01_20160106_0315_056_fb6 short-eared owl on meadow post for 4 minutes (selected) 3 of 3 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 05 Apr 2015
at 07:47 Image of day on 27 May 2015
Here is the most interesting view of the intact pellet under a moderate macro lens.
The small ruler divisions are 1mm in the real world - on our PC monitor we see
the image as 5 times life size. You can clearly see what turned out to be the skull
and top front teeth near the top.
The images of a range of Owl pellets convinced us that this came from a
Tawny owl - Barn owl pellets are much smoother.
Link to:
Barn owl Survey Pellet Identification
28-105mm macro lens set to 70mm, 20mm Extension tube.
1/250 Sec F 25 100 ISO, Flash ETTL Auto-exposure.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20150527_db1_20150405_0747_007 tawny owl pellet containing skull + jaws of bank vole (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 05 Apr 2015
at 09:27 Image of day on 27 May 2015
No animals were harmed by this dissection - only by the Owl weeks ago!
As recommended in the linked RSPB document we soaked the pellet in water.
It took about 15 minutes to soak through. We then picked it apart and separated
all the non-fur bits (fur at least 90% of the volume) to produce these pieces.
The job is fiddly, difficult to remove all the fur as you can see, but is perfectly
pleasant - there is no noticeable odour or nasty surprises!
We at first thought the flat disc near the upper right quadrant might be a
beetle wing case, but the ID diagram (see link) suggests it is an Rodent 'Ear Capsule'.
Link to:
RSPB Owl Pellet guide
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20150527_db1_20150405_0927_015 tawny owl pellet containing skull + jaws of bank vole (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 05 Apr 2015
at 10:08 Image of day on 27 May 2015
Identifying the mammal the bones belong to requires careful
examination of the teeth. We have stood up the skull and jaw here
in Blue-tack (the light blue stuff under the bones) so the teeth
are visible.
According to the key in the RSPB document it is a Bank Vole identified by their interesting
curved forms most clearly visible on the top right of the skull (on the right).
The left and right lower jaws are to the left. We don't know which way
round the jaws are here - we had no idea that rodent lower jaws came in two separate
halves - it is not broken. The skull is about 8mm long.
Taken with Canon MP-E 65mm lens sets at about 3x life size. That's the
size on the camera sensor, much enlarged here.
This close to the subject the flash auto-exposure was rubbish, and we have
here a full flash image still underexposed and lightened during processing.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20150527_db1_20150405_1008_003 tawny owl pellet containing skull + jaws of bank vole (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
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