Short-eared Owl - Ginst Point, Laugharne, Carms : 24th March 2024

I visited Ginst Point near Laugharne a few times in November + December 2023 for the Short-eared Owls that were there in numbers and showing well but had not visited in 2024.

The numbers are now well down on what they were in the recent Winter period and I believe that there are now only two present and they will probably move on to their breeding grounds shortly.

Teresa had her own car with her so made her own way home whilst I did a detour to our normal route by heading down the A478 to St Clears and on to Laugharne.

Upon arrival at the dilapidated Corran buildings I was greeted by Tommy and Jen Evans who I have got to know and who had arrived there about an hour earlier than myself, there were also another couple there that I did not recognise but they were not particularly talkative.

I parked up in a favourable position and watched the hunting field from the comfort of my car, the light was starting to fail and at 5.50pm I glanced in my rear view mirror to see a 'Shortie' heading towards the hunting field.

I leapt out of the car and headed further down the lane and proceeded to get some shots of the bird quartering the rough pasture field.

It then disappeared around the corner of a large stone wall and out of view, as I walked further down the lane I saw that it had landed on a fencepost and it let me advance to within 40m taking shots 'on the go'.

I tweeked my settings and lowered my shutter speed to decrease the ISO in the hope of getting less 'noisy' images and luckily this worked to great effect although the minimum ISO was still 3,200,

I am a huge fan of DXO Pure Raw noise reduction software and currently use Version 3 although on this occasion I used Version 4 which has just been released and I have on a 14 day free trial period.

After seeing the results I shall definitely be upgrading, the flight shots were taken at ISOs 12,800 and 16,000 and the way that they have been transformed by DXO is incredible.

I stayed until almost dark (6.50pm) hoping that a local Barn Owl would show which it didn't although the 'Shortie' put in another appearance but by this time it was way too dark for photography anyway.

I did go home though with some 'portrait' shots that I was more than pleased with..........