Barn Owl face to face.

I have spent very many enjoyable hours photographing Barn Owls, the sight of one always excites me, but this bird was a real surprise!
I usually have a camera with me when travelling in the car, and very early Saturday morning was no exception; at the nearby village of Steeple Morden where there are houses either side of the road I saw what I thought at first was a cat sat on a fence by a bungalow, that was until the "cat" took off and flew down the road to perch a fence post by asmall paddock. It was too far away for a decent shot so I made a little squeaky noise, as you can see in the pictures it flew straight towards me as if to come into the window of the car; it then spent about 5 minutes perched just above my head on the car roof!
The glow of the rising sun on the ripening Barley made such a great soft focus backdrop that compliments the Owl's colours, a great way to start the day!