An anonymous photographer known as Villager Jim has captured a rare and heartwarming moment of four young barn owls waiting patiently to be fed in the Peak District. The images, taken in heavy rain outside a barn, show the owlets perched together, a sight the photographer described as a 'heart-pounding moment'.
Villager Jim, who is based in Eyam, Derbyshire, travels around 40 miles daily across the Peak District to photograph wildlife. After spotting the young owls on a previous occasion, he returned to the barn on Monday to find all four chicks waiting as their mother hunted nearby.
'These guys I knew were growing up inside this barn,' he told the BBC. 'I've had one or two on the window sill and then all four were there with the mum 50 to 100 metres behind me, hunting in the field. It was a heart-pounding moment where you think, "Please God, do not go away. Don't move, stay there."'
The photographs have garnered widespread praise on social media, with Villager Jim noting that such an event is a rare occurrence. 'That will only happen once a year maybe, something amazing like that. It makes every other day worthwhile,' he added.
Despite the challenging weather conditions, Villager Jim emphasised the importance of persistence in wildlife photography. 'There's a golden rule of always go out no matter what the weather is because that wildlife is always still there,' he said.
