What's that noise?

Went for a drive round the Perthshire glens today. Suddenly the instruction to Mrs L was "you need to do a U-turn". I'd just spotted an owl atop a small conifer. Eventually "she" finds a place to turn, but rather than stop close to the owl "she" has to stop somewhere "safe". No chance of a photo from there though so "she" attempts to reverse back down the road a bit, by which time the owl's feeling peckish and heads off hunting over the moorland. No photo, but "she" returns to the "safe" parking space and we have a wee look round.

There's a strange sort of cooing, koking noise close by - no more than twenty meters away are nine male black grouse, there's a bit of lekking activity going on a bit of pecking at the grass and flying up into the trees to eat the leaves. We spent a pleasant hour just sitting there watching them, and then the owl returned. You'll have to check out RCB's Short-eared Owl - the first one we've seen! What a clever lady Mrs L was for parking there!

• Canon EOS 550D:
• f/8.0:
• 1/250":
• 500mm:
• ISO 100

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