This is one I took at a local craft fair during a bird display.
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Wow - what big eyes he has! A lovely photo of a fantastic Owl. Thank you, Graham.
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Bird of prey centres are ideal for this type of photograph. The international bird of prey centre was ideal but now closed to the public due to its aims have changed with specie preservation. Dawn and I had a great couple of different days there photographing the birds.
Fantastic creature isnt it… actually I have a really big owl who lives in a copse of trees in the field just behind our house… I always know when he is about whatever time of night because all the birds wake up and make such a racket…I’ve seen him during the day too he is enormous I thought it was a barn owl but maybe not.
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Looks like a snowy owl that last photo
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Beautiful owl Graham, wonderful plumage.
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Those eyes are incredibly vivid…!
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Another lovely photo, Graham. I realise it is an optical illusion but those jessies look like they have tied his feet together! 
An Owl in handcuffs!!
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Beautiful pics, Graham, especially the first one. 
Owl have always fascinated me.
I feel very sorry for the bird in ths YouTube vid though. It shows a bloke fixing the straps to his bird’s legs and the poor bird is obviously distressed and doesn’t seem to want them, or any contact with the owner either. I am not surprised though, if when he is not flying he has to spend his life in that horrible shed in solitary.
I think he’s a young bird, who has had an illness or injury & the falconer is getting him back to fitness & into training after a lay off. I don’t think the bird was distressed, just didn’t know what the man intended. He didn’t attack the man at all & that bill could have done a lot of damage, as could the birds talons.
No, he didn’t attack the man at all Tiff, but he tried his best to get away from him. Would just a youngster (the bird) have had the nerve and maturity to attack the man?
I thought the owner could have done more to try and reassure the bird, but he didn’t even talk to him or try and calm him.
What makes you think the bird had been ill, I never heard anything said about that?
It looks like a hybrid to me … maybe a Turkmanian/ snowy cross which would explain the short “ears” ( they’re not ears) and the amount of white in the plumage.
As for reassurance the bird would be at flying weight so it would be hyper sensitive to everything around it. Unlike other animals birds of prey are completely food oriented and unless they are hungry enough they won’t fly … it comes down to a risk versus reward scenario