Night Owl

Tawny Owl, originally uploaded by andyskelton-a Blog a day http://andrewskelton.net.

It’s a medium sized brown bird, how on earth could it be vaguely interesting? Well, first off it’s an owl.. that ought to be enough, more precisely it’s a Tawny Owl and I think it’s absolutely gorgeous. It’s hardly a rare bird, being widely distributed through out Eurasian, so that can’t be it’s appeal, and it’s certainly not the largest or smallest of the species – so what is it’s appeal? Well, we have a pair of these that live either side of our house, which I think I’ve mentioned before. I’ve never seen them clearly with the exception of when seen in car headlights – they only turn up when all available sunlight has moved onto more westerly climes so I’ve not taken any photos of them in the wild as of yet.

This photo was taken at the Hawk Conservancy, near Andover, a place I’ve visited before numerous times and I’ve written about it before. The centre is all what is right with conservation where they take in injured wild birds and nurse them back to health, they ensure the continuation survival of endangered species – this isn’t a zoo, or a money making concern, it’s people who love the creatures they work with and want to make a different. I doff my cap to them.

In my limited way, I hope I’m making a bit of a different to the creatures I photograph. Not directly of course, they’re not on commission (neither am I come to think of it – perhaps I need to redress this) but through my portrayal  of these creatures in an endearing way (I hope).The more people connect with the natural world, rather than the latest phone in TV show, then the more they will care, and hopefully as awareness rises so will the protection of all species. Creatures before Capitalism.

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