Last week I read that there was a female Tawny Owl with two Owlets in St. James's Park, which is not all that far from where I live. My camera and I went out searching for them last Friday, but to no avail. However, I did get chatting to someone who was also looking for them and, after I had gone home, he found them and kindly let me know where to look.
The next day it was very overcast, but I was determined to once again search for the owl family - and I found them. Sadly, one of the Owlets had not made it and what was left of it's body was lying on the ground near the tree. Mum Owl and the surviving youngster were perching high up in the branches, almost at the top of a 60ft plane tree. Once I had noticed them, they were quite obvious because, as it is early on in the year, there were no leaves on the tree. However, they were very difficult to photograph because of their position on the tree and due to the fact that most of the time they had their backs to me. After some time both mum and baby turned round.
I went to the park again the next day when the weather was much better - so managed to take a photograph of the female Tawny Owl with the background of a very blue sky.
Unfortunately, the Owlet refused to get into a good position - keeping it's back towards me, hiding in the branches and being mostly covered with big round seed heads. Mum was still posing nicely.
This is a photograph of the plane tree with the adult and young Tawnies perching on branches towards the right-hand side at the very top of the tree. You definitely would not know that they were there unless you were looking for them - very sensible!
Thank goodness I have a camera with a zoom lens!!
