My three month spell watching the Barn owls is now coming to a end ,I have spent nearly every spare hour I have had in between work and weekends to try for the shot I am looking for ,they are a joy to watch but it takes a while to gather the info of the birds flight paths /routine etc as it does change with condition's and how successful they are at first light ,I initially set up with my little pop up hide looking for head on shots but struggled with the 400mm 5.6 as I was forever missing focus by hitting stray grass and when you only get one chance every couple of hours it gets frustrating, so a change of plan, I did have permission to go on the land so I looked for a manmade hide already in the field not far from were the bird was quartering what I found was a large (smelly) large bail of hay that had a small dip in front of it,after that a case of sit and wait ,this shot was around 1 hour after sunrise with light cloud allowing for a diffused sort of light ,its not perfect I know but this shot was one of my favorites of hundreds on the day ,mainly because I got a long hard look rather than the quick look and turn,if you have ever watched and photographed Barn owls you can appreciate the look ...Canon 1d mkiv 400mm 5.6 at 5.6 iso 800 1/1000 sec +1/3ev handheld