Tawny Owl (Juvenile)

A wonderful experience I've had recently. My first encouter with a Tawny Owl (Juvenile). I was walking in the forest when I stopped looking for songbirds. All of a sudden I "felt" some eyes stare at me. I looked up and you see the result of the photo. This owl is rarely seen in daylight as it hunts at night. It was resting in this tree and closed his eyes again and didn't open them anymore as I was waiting for several hours. Ow yeah a Kingfisher crossed my lens while making this photo.

D300, 200-400 VR 4.0 + TC1,4
550mm
ISO400
F8.0
1/320
Tripod used as Monopod

That must have been a wonderful experience, this was a tough situation to get a decent image with the side lighting and the heavy foliage and you did about as well as you could I would crop some of the bottom off there really isn't any thing going on down there and getting rid off some of the green would help the owl stand out more.

Hi Andrew I think you made the best image possible from your position !!!

Processing wise you might want to tone down the left bottom side and lighten the area around the eyes !!! Great find !!!!

How exciting to have the opportunity to see this beautiful owl. I agree with Alfred. You did a great job under difficult circumstances. Thanks so much for sharing and I do hope you see it again.

Hi Andrew,
Very exciting seeing these guys in the wild. I Hope you get many more opportunities......this time with better BG's,
Roman