2006-08-30 - Night Eyes

I was on my way home from work a while ago when I spotted a bird sitting on a fence post along my driveway. Although it was completely dark, I thought I'd stop and have a closer look. This is what I found - I think it is a Grass Owl. I thought I might be able to get a photo from a distance but to my amazement, I was able to walk to almost within a metre of it. It didn't seem to be able to see me in front of the car lights. It was really quite breathtaking to get such a close view of this majestic, wild creature.

Technical details of this shot: 200mm handheld, F/2.8, 1/40s @ ISO 400. I also used flash set at -1EV.