Short Eared Owl

I came across these purley by chance as i was looking for red Grouse in the High Peaks on the outskirts of Buxton on the road towards Leek were i turned of the main road on to a small track at Dale Head.As i walked the heather i heard the familiar sound of the Grouse so i headed in the direction that it was coming from when i caught a glimpse of something cowering down in the heather and grasses,i stoped dead in my tracks and could make out something looking towards me, i knelt down and slowly raised the camera to my eye and zoomed right in (wow a short eared owl in my viewfinder) i only got three shots off and when i looked again it had vanished but the three i got were quite acceptable considering it took me by surpriseAgain my Nikon D300s with a 80/400 telephoto lense was all i needed with an aperture of f7.1 at400m at 1/500 sec with an iso of 250.Looking back the conditions were perfect and the adrenaline buzz i got was something i can not describe and to this day i have walked the moors and never seen another one (yet but i will) it dissaperad so silently that i never even new it had gone.I have since learnt that they are often seen in daylight hunting .I went to a talk by Paul Hobson who is a master of photography in the peaks and he does a lot of work for the BBC and Derbyshire life and always has a few photos in the the Derbyshire Life Magazine .