Those short summer nights...

Those short summer nights

 A few years back I had found a Tawny owl's nest in a busy park in North London.
Owls are normally active at night but adults with such a big chicks work around the clock as summer nights alone are not long enough to get all the food their chicks need.
I still chose night over day for this 'project' thinking a picture taken in the dark would look better and hoping that the park would be less manic at night.
I set up a hide far away enough not to disturb the nest, put my camera on a tripod and I was waiting with one end of a remote shutter release in my hand.
Owls are silent fliers, you do not get much notice before they appear right at the front of you so I also had to use a little torch to be able to see the right moment when one of the adults returned and hopefully take a shot before it disappeared into its nest.
As hours passed I started to wonder if they were ever going to return to the nest or had they somehow noticed me and wanted me to leave first?
I also wondered about how vulnerable I was sitting there alone in the dark with some park gangs having a verbal fight on a path not far behind me.
All I could do was hope that those strangers would not pick up the light spreading from my torch and come and say they want 'their' camera back. I think there and then the only thing that kept me in the hide was the fact that I was afraid to move.

Since then I know that nights even in June can be bloody long sometimes......

I missed the right  moment many times before I took this single image towards the end of the third night.

Gab


Tawny owl (Strix aluco)      Wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus)

Canon eos600d      Canon24-105mmf/4 II USM  at55mm   1/25sec f7.1  ISO200,