I’m at my grandparents place helping them with their sheep and other duties this weekend as my grandfather hurt his right hand falling a couple of weeks ago.
Close to their house a couple of Eagle Owls is nesting and I’d hoped to hear them while being here, as their call is most certainly a sign of the oncoming spring.
At dusk this afternoon I got lucky. I heard one of them calling while tending the sheep so I walked around for a bit trying to locate where the sound came from. After awhile I found a good spot in the outskirts of the garden and put my D50 on the ground and pressed REC (I didn’t bring any gear except the D50 and my OKM’s with me going here). After walking away about 10 meters from the D50 I started scanning the surroundings. Suddenly my eyes detected a small movement in a tree some 30 meters in front of me. After focusing a while i managed to distinguish the contour of something pretty large sitting on one of the lower branches. I’d been standing there watching (and being watched) for about three minutes when it took of.
It’s not unusual at all to encounter Eagle Owls here as a couple is nesting about 200 m from my grandparents place. You can literally see the bird nest from one of my grandparents windows. So, next time coming here I’ll bring my NT1-A’s with me to hopefully get some good quality recordings of this mighty bird. Until then you’ll have to settle with this:
Geek note: Sony PCM-D50 (mics placed X/Y 90 degrees)
inovember 
What a fabulous catch!! Love these owls 🙂
Agree Martyn. Fabulous catch.
It’d be nice to see a photo of the tree where they roost.
They roost on a cliff across a small bay from my grandparents house. I think that the next time I’m going there a friend of mine who’s a photographer will follow so I’ll ask him to bring a good lens to get some close-ups of the nest.