Barn owl surprise!

On Monday 12th May I was walking along the boundary hedge and tree line towards an old ash tree that I knew had an owl in it from previous sightings, I had my camera with me as a matter of habit, to my amazement there were two barn owls sitting the large entrance hole of the ash tree having a snooze, it was 8.15am. They had probably been up all night hunting. Incredibly they didn't notice me arrive, so I took a couple of photos from where I was (about 75 yds) and then dropped down to the ground to crawl along army commando style under the arch of the stinging nettles and brambles until I was only 25 yards away. They still hadn't noticed me. I took about 30 photos over the next 10 minutes. I am fairly sure the male is on the right and the female is on the left. At one point they did seem to realise that something different was looking at them from the ground, which concentrated their look in my direction, but eventually they seemed to accept me. I finally managed to reverse crawl back the way I had come and they never even realised the whole photographic session had taken place. What a treat, I was so privileged to get that close and be undetected. My T-shirt was soaked with dew and stained with grass and dirt, but it was brilliant.

The 3 photos below are close ups of the better shots.

These have now been made into greetings cards that I am selling, 20% of which is being donated to Dorset Wildlife Trust.