Little Owl by John Richardson
Little Owl, undisclosed site, Suffolk (Photo: John Richardson)
Owls have featured strongly among this week's fantastic submissions, but this superb image by John Richardson really caught my eye. This behavioural shot shows a Little Owl fluffing out its wings and feathers while sitting in the rain, presumably just enjoying a shower while also cleaning and maintaining its feathers.
John used a 500mm lens with the aperture wide open at f4 to throw both the foreground and background out of focus so the owl is the only focal point. A shutter speed of 1/1250th second has kept the movement sharp producing an attractive and worthy winner of Photo of the Week.
Congratulations to John on his second winning image of the year and who by now, must have a hard-drive full of both Short-eared and Little Owl shots!
You can read more on bird photography from Steve Young, including product reviews and a regular Photo Challenge for readers, every month in Birdwatch magazine.
Other notable images
Little Owl, undisclosed site, Leicestershire and Rutland (Photo: Paul Riddle)
Short-eared Owl, North Uist, Outer Hebrides (Photo: Marcus Conway - ebirder)
Sandwich Tern, Scolt Head Island, Norfolk (Photo: Baz Scampion)
Swift, Far Ings NR, Lincolnshire (Photo: Mandy West)
Bee-eater, Theberton, Suffolk (Photo: Jon Evans)
House Martin, undisclosed site, Kent (Photo: Steve Ashton)
Gannet, Bempton Cliffs RSPB, East Yorkshire (Photo: Antony Ward)
Starling, Wigan, Greater Manchester (Photo: Roy Rimmer)
Grey Partridge, Musselburgh, Lothian (Photo: Dennis Morrison)
Red-footed Falcon, Chatterley Whitfield, Staffordshire (Photo: John Tymon)
Puffin, Skomer, Pembrokeshire (Photo: Rob Cross)
