5th October 2016 by emmadurnford

5th October 2016

Day two of Colin’s birthday trip and this morning we went the the Birds of Prey Centre in Wilstead for half a day of handling and flying owls. I was not sure what to expect and was a bit worried to see the portaloos in the car park. However, it was clear that the profits generated go straight to looking after and caring for the wide range of birds and animals here which are very well cared for.

We were lucky that there were only three people including Colin handling the birds and tow observers including myself (overloaded with both my 5D Mk 3 and my old 50D!). The morning was brilliant and depsite meant to be observing, Shauna the trainer let me fly a few owls and handle them. They are magnificent birds and Shauna was a wealth of information and knows every single bird, their history and how they need to be cared for. The morning concluded with us holding McCoy the Bald Headed Eagle - he was massive!

My photo for today is actually of Marley the Barn Owl which I have to admit are my favourite British bird of prey and there are some more images of the owls that we met on the day. It was a real challenge to capture them in flight with shutter speeds of 1/1000 to 1/1250 (there were a lot of editing out of blurred images and green spaces as the bird was totally out of shot!).

We continued the day with a visit to Aynho continuing Colin’s family history research. By sheer chance I managed to find the gravestone of his Great, Great, Great Grandmother in the churchyard of St Michael’s church which was just about legible despite the age of the stone. We took some recording shots for the book that Colin is writing about his family tree.

@padlock - what about these? https://www.facebook.com/Emma-Durnford-LRPS-Photographer-186301661422523/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1243995525653126
Wow Emma this is fabulous - Fav
October 7th, 2016  
Brilliant. Fraid they are the shots I want in the wild but so far not terribly successful.
October 7th, 2016  
@rosiekind Thanks Rosie. I know they are not wild but it was fun to try and photograph them anyway. I'm tempted to photoshop out the 'jessies' and enter it into my photo club monthly competition (that would be cheating though!).
October 7th, 2016  
@padlock I know I don't have the patience for wildlife photography but it was fun to try and get these in flight. I still haven't been over to Bushy Park. It's useless at the weekends as so many other people are there so I'll give it a try next week. You're getting some good kingfisher shots now.
October 7th, 2016  
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