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Image-of-the-Day by Subject
Birds - Tawny Owl Page 12
Image Taken on 07 Feb 2018
at 19:53 Image of day on 11 Mar 2018
2 days later, after a visit to the meadow post, the Tawny Owl flies straight
to the kitchen window perch but stays for only a few moments.
The posture for the landing remarkably matches that from the previous visit.
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Ref: 20180311_e60_20180207_1953_037_fb3 tawny owl brief visit to kitchen perch(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 03 Dec 2025
at 17:49 Image of day on 16 Jan 2026
This Tawny Owl takes his 'selfie' a couple of hours after sunset.
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Ref: 20260116_d01_20251203_1749_003_fb6 tawny owl brief visit to meadow post(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 16 Jun 2024
at 03:49 Image of day on 14 Jul 2024
Here we catch this slightly awkward position.
Just visible at this size are speckles of rain over the bird's head.
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Ref: 20240714_d01_20240616_0349_389_fb6 tawny owl brief visit to meadow post in rain(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 01 Nov 2013
at 21:25 Image of day on 22 Dec 2013
This Tawny Owl made this catch at about 9:25 p.m. (in the talons
without triggering the camera) and here triggered the camera as
it flew away with the Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) now transferred to the beak. The
newly fallen dead twig behind the log changed the routes the mice
use around the log, and may have led to a mouse exposing itself
more than normal.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20131222_d5c_20131101_2125_059_fb2 tawny owl carrying off fieldmouse (wood mouse) in beak (crop 1)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 03 Sep 2015
at 01:54 Image of day on 01 Nov 2015
One of 'our' Tawny owls appeared first for just these 2 frames at
the meadow post. The heap of food was unusually left unfinished
by the evening diners. In the second frame the bird is staring
intensely at the log of ground level site 5 (FB5) ...
 1+2 of 11 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20151101_d01_20150903_0154_018+0155_019_fb6 tawny owl catches & eats vole (see catch at e62_20150903_0158_300) 1+2 of 11 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 03 Sep 2015
at 01:55 Image of day on 01 Nov 2015
The Tawny Owl immediately flew back to the post and arrived back
in the same minute with the prize. The post top is probably a
more solid dining table than the rain soaked earth by the log.
The bird spent the next 5 minutes or so ripping the Vole to
pieces and swallowing the parts, leaving nothing of the vole to
find next day.
 3-5+8+10+11 of 11 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20151101_d01_20150903_0155_020-0201_028_fb6 tawny owl catches & eats vole (see e62_20150903_0158_300) 3-5+8+10+11 of 11 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 06 Sep 2015
at 04:39 Image of day on 03 Nov 2015
The Tawny Owl grabbing the Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) in a single foot.
He didn't return to the post this time to eat it. He may have eaten
it right there (this camera doesn't repeat while the beam is blocked)
or flown off with it.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20151103_e62_20150906_0439_165_fb5 tawny owl catching fieldmouse (wood mouse) (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 28 Jul 2014
at 03:35 Image of day on 30 Sep 2014
This is a sequence of 4 images of a single event captured by 2 cameras.
The Tawny Owl spent about 5 minutes on the post top (mostly with back
to camera) and the final frame we have of the owl sees the bird fixated
on something down and to the right - the meadow camera trap.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20140930_d01_20140728_0335_015 tawny owl catching fieldmouse (wood mouse) from meadow post 2 of 4 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 28 Jul 2014
at 03:37 Image of day on 30 Sep 2014
We think this is what the Tawny Owl had heard - a fieldmouse (wood mouse). It
is possible that the camera being tripped may have alerted the
Owl, but they do mostly hunt by sound.
(r+mb id@432).jpg)
Ref: 20140930_e62_20140728_0337_510_fb5 tawny owl catching fieldmouse (wood mouse) from meadow post 3 of 4 (crop)(r+mb id@432).jpg
Image Taken on 28 Jul 2014
at 03:39 Image of day on 30 Sep 2014
The Tawny owl dives down onto what is probably the same
Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) and grabs it in the Owls left Claws (so on the right
here). The image is very high contrast between full flash on
white feathers under the wing, and the claws and mouse shaded by
the body of the bird. We have done our best to make all the
elements visible, at the expense of some cosmetic qualities.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20140930_e62_20140728_0339_511_fb5 tawny owl catching fieldmouse (wood mouse) from meadow post 4 of 4 (crop 1)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 28 Jul 2014
at 03:39 Image of day on 30 Sep 2014
Still not sure about the mouse?
Here is the foot with the back of the mouse extending left. The
Mouse's tail touches the claws on the other foot.
(r+mb id@288).jpg)
Ref: 20140930_e62_20140728_0339_511_fb5 tawny owl catching fieldmouse (wood mouse) from meadow post 4 of 4 (detail crop 2)(r+mb id@288).jpg
Image Taken on 03 Sep 2015
at 01:58 Image of day on 01 Nov 2015
The Tawny Owl swooped down from the post top onto this hapless
Vole which has here just been caught in the Owl's talons.
The Owl's eyes look strange because many hunting birds cover
their eyes with their Nictitating Membranes at moments when
things 'might go wrong' in the same way that humans screw up
their eyes when something nasty could happen. ...
 (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20151101_e62_20150903_0158_300_fb5 tawny owl catching vole (see also d01_20150903_0154_018-028_fb6) (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 13 Apr 2011
at 01:16 Image of day on 21 May 2011
About 1 a.m. a self photographed Tawny Owl landing on top of the ceramic
feeder. We miss many of these arrivals - the trigger beam
senses a break at the bottom centre in this crop so it can easily
fly in without triggering it.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20110521_d3b_20110413_0116_022_fb3 tawny owl coming in to land on peanut feeder top (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 26 Nov 2017
at 19:17 Image of day on 01 Jan 2018
Our first Tawny Owl sighting for nearly 2 months was on the kitchen
window bird table.
 (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20180101_e60_20171126_1917_005_fb3 tawny owl few minutes visit (hand triggered) (crop)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Dec 2017
at 19:33 Image of day on 21 Jan 2018
About 20 minutes after the last visit to the meadow post this
Tawny owl touched down on the G-cramp at the kitchen window bird table.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20180121_e60_20171215_1933_067_fb3 tawny owl few minutes visit 1 of 2 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 20 Nov 2022
at 18:10 Image of day on 19 Dec 2022
3 pics here all with the same timestamp just after dark 6:10 p.m.
The mouse had already scarpered when the Tawny Owl pounced presumably
onto a less vigilant member of the family.
We positioned the Post and Meadow site years ago in the hope of catching pairings
like this, but this year the numbers of such events has soared.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20221219_d01_20221120_1810_053_fb6+e6a_456+457_fb5 tawny owl flies from post to pounce on prey at meadow site 1-3 of 3 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Oct 2014
at 00:23 Image of day on 19 Dec 2014
About 30 minutes after the middle image above, we got this (most
likely the same) Tawny Owl flying away from the kitchen window.
An inspection of the CCTV recording shows that the bird landed on
the top of the free-standing peanut feeder (out of crop to the right)
15 minutes earlier (without triggering the IR beam to the left of
the feeder) and had stayed there until take-off breaking the beam
for this image.
Way out of focus & heavily 'sharpened' - any larger sample looks horrid!
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20141219_e60_20141015_0023_071_fb3 tawny owl flying away (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 14 Jan 2019
at 23:32 Image of day on 16 Feb 2019
This Tawny Owl, probably just launched from the right side of the kitchen bird
table-perch at half an hour to midnight having arrived earlier without
triggering the camera.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20190216_e60_20190114_2332_011_fb3 tawny owl flying from kitchen window perch (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 21 Dec 2012
at 20:39 Image of day on 28 Jan 2013
About 2 hours later a Tawny Owl (we can't see any identification differences
to make us think a different individual) took this photo as it came in
to land by the peanut feeder.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20130128_d3b_20121221_2039_067_fb3 tawny owl flying in to land (crop 2)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 22 Apr 2022
at 03:41 Image of day on 28 May 2022
A Tawny Owl about to land on the Kitchen Window perch.
The Owl has flown along the sense beam line so the camera has triggered 'early'.
If it landed blocking the beam line then (on this camera setup) it wouldn't be
photographed again, so we don't know how long the owl stayed.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20220528_e60_20220422_0341_044_fb3 tawny owl flying in to land on kitchen perch (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
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