As the competition with Ian continues, I had a week where most of my submissions were wildlife taken one morning in the meadows. None of the images are particularly award winning. Or even remotely. But they tell a story of meadow life. The owl featured that morning but so did a fox - the first time I’d seen it there.

The owl was doing a lot of perching that morning - I think it was either tired after a long night of hunting or it had been successful and caught enough. This was a lovely shot of it taking off from a perch and different from other images I have caught this winter.

I have also been back on the farm to my favourite track. The hares are still using the crossing so I hope to achieve that elusive boxing shot here in the next couple of weeks. Here the hare is joined by a just-visible partridge in the bottom left of shot.

For the last few weeks Ian Smithers and I have engaged in a high stakes weekly photo competition. With no prize but pride we have pitted town v country in an epic battle. Last week this was my (winning) offering.

Eye contact, nice wing position, soft winter grasses…

It was a cold, clear, calm evening. I saw the owl hunting around a water meadow it frequents. This is where I photographed it last summer and I tried again but it is a difficult location in terms of backgrounds and remaining concealed - there are trees along the river but you have to be clear of them to get a good shot. Instead I set up at the end of the meadow along a track.

The owl made a circuit of the meadow avoiding my lens then flew over adjoining farm land. I lingered for a while then it returned performing the perfect flyby - at a distance of about 40 yds. A burst of shots in the twilight and I had a very nice photo.

The light was pretty low. I was shooting at ISO3200 with my lens wide open and still only getting 1/400th sec. Just enough though to freeze the flight.

The image is changed massively according to the wing position and shape. The first shot is my current favourite but I do like seeing how the shape and marking change during the beat.

Eye contact is also an important point and really strengthens the image. I was lucky with vegetation really adding to the mood and palette.