More From Noushka

Noushka has recently returned from Spain, and has put a post on her blog with some superb images from a Little Owl encounter. Please take a look via this link. Here is a taster!

Photographer and Artist of Note - Noushka

For some time now I've been admiring the photography and artistic skills of Noushka (at Noushka's request, I have removed her surname), currently living in south-west France.  Noushka's wildlife photography (mainly of birds) is stunning. It has an illustrative quality about it, showing an amazing level of detail - just look and you'll understand what I mean!

It seemed, therefore, appropriate to use a recent post of hers, the subject of which was Long-eared Owls, as the basis of a recent decision to try and revitalise the Owler's Blog Network (which I've totally neglected for many months!).

A sample of Noushka's work is given below, but you can find the full post on her blog at http://1000-pattes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/le-hibou-moyen-duc-asio-otus.html.

copy permitted

Please do take time to look at Noushka's other posts, even if they are not about owls!!

OBN Welcomes Scott Weston

Until today, the OBN only had five members with all but one from UK (England, even!). So you might think that when I said we had a second request for membership from Essex, it was from the English county of Essex - but no, this was a second member from Essex, Massachusetts, USA.

I am delighted to welcome latest OBN member Scott Western. Scott's blog is a little different to those of other OBN members, being primarily a documentation of the owl sites that he monitors, and with the illustrations almost being secondary to that documentation. It is, nevertheless, an interesting read!

Scott's blog is not on the 'Blogger' system, but on 'Wordpress'. The link to his blog in the right hand column of this blog still works just fine, even if it doesn't show the thumbnail image of his latest post.

So now the OBN has six members - four from old England and two from New England!!

Welcome aboard Scott!

A Spanish Photographer of Note

OBN member Christian Thompson has brought to my attention the amazing blog of Spanish photographer Mario Cea. 

I believe that one post, in particular, will be of interest to OBN  members, and visitors to this blog. It showcases Mario's skills as applied to capturing images of Little Owls in action. One of the images from this post is reproduced below.

image by kind permission of Mario Cea

 What I particularly like, apart from the fabulous images, is that Mario shares with us his set-up for achieving these images. This set-up exhibits a total dedication to his hobby.

Please also take the time to look at some of Mario's non-owl images - they are truly stunning. You can find a link to Mario's Little Owl post at http://mariocea-fotofauna.blogspot.com/2011/09/el-ano-del-mochuelo.html . To get to his other posts, go to http://mariocea-fotofauna.blogspot.com/. To see the full post, you need to click on 'LEER MAS' at the bottom right of each post. You might also find the blog of his group of photographic friends of interest. You can find that at http://quedadanatural.blogspot.com/

OBN Welcomes Stevie Evans

A very warm welcome to the latest OBN member. Dedicated expert owler Stevie Evans from Co. Durham has just joined our ranks. Stevie has been an inspiration to me since I first became interested in owls. He is lucky enough to have all five UK species of owl local to him on a full-time basis, and has even had encounters with a Snowy Owl - although that was an escapee!! Stevie's blog 'Cut'n a Long story Short' (subtitled 'In Dusk We Trust'  - I wish I'd thought of that one!) is largely focussed on owling, but does also tell of other encounters with local wildlife. As well as his own experiences and photos, he also includes information and images from his many local contacts. This is another blog that you should not miss!

Welcome to the Latest Member of the OBN

Accomplished wildlife photographer Christian Thompson sent me an e-mail asking if his blog was "owly enough" to join the OBN. It didn't take me more than a quick glance to realise that the answer was a resounding "Yes!". Whilst Lancashire-based Christian has an overall interest in wildlife photography, his love of owls shines through in his blog Hiding in Cars. From his past work, I'm sure that we can look forward to plenty of interesting 'owly' posts from Christian in the future! Welcome aboard !!!

Book Review - 'Owls Of The World' by Rob Hume

Books on owls seem to be a bit few and far between, unless you are looking for a monograph on a particular species. For most of us, I guess that the monographs go into a level of scientific detail that is a bit more than we are looking for. I've been keeping my eyes open for owl books for more than a year now, so was pleased to find one recently that I was not aware of - 'Owls of The World' by Rob Hume, illustrated by Trevor Boyer.

Most of us, no matter where we live in the world, probably only have a handful of owl species that we can see within our own country. If you are passionate about owls, it is probably inevitable that one's thoughts occasionally turn to what species might be found in other countries. If that is the case, this is a book that could be of interest to you. This book takes us  genus by genus, species by species, though all known owl species worldwide (as far as I am aware!).

For each species the book gives descriptions of the bird, its distribution, habitat, character, diet, breeding pattern, status, etc.. The levels of description are a little variable, particularly as some of the species have been little studied or are almost unknown! Where there is debate as to what are different species or just a different races of the same species this is discussed. Also, each species (with just a few exceptions - where very little is known about a species) is beautifully illustrated by Trevor Boyer. At the end of the book there are small distribution maps for each of the species.

If I have any criticisms of the book they revolve around its use as an identification guide. Inevitably, there are many similarities between some of the species, even within a single geographical range. The descriptions of the species' physical characteristics are sometimes a bit woolly and occasionally seem to be at odds with the illustrations. Given that many owls are masters at changing their appearance, it would have been nice to have more than one illustration per species. For example, with several of the Pygmy Owls, it mentions the 'false face', with eye spots on the back of the head - but this feature is not illustrated anywhere!

In all other respects, however, the information in the book is to an informative and interesting level. This book might just tempt you to travel abroad and exercise your passion elsewhere !

The book is to a large format (32 x 25.5 cm) and has 192 pages. The quality of the paper and binding seems to be to a high level. -  ISBN 1-85585-352-3

This book is currently out of print, but there are second-hand copies around. I was lucky to find mine at Birdfair at Rutland Water last month. It was in a charity book sale organised by the Rutland Osprey Project, and I paid the princely sum of GBP 5.00 for the book which was in absolutely mint condition! Buying it second-hand through Amazon will currently cost you between GBP 30 and GBP 60, but you might find it much cheaper elsewhere - even in a 'remainder' shop?