This evening was overcast, but there was a window of clear sky out to the west. Fortune smiled on me as the setting sun dropped below the clouds – it sent a shaft of golden light into the oak tree and illuminated the bough that was the parent owls’ favourite place for scowling at the world and bringing food to the chicks.

I had put a flashgun on a lighting stand aimed at the bough to illuminate them from the front – they would otherwise have been near silhouettes. With the lighting – both natural and man-made – perfect, the owls and chicks played their part and performed on their usual stage.

The opportunity to photograph these charismatic birds with their offspring lasted a mere four days, from the day they emerged from the nest-hole to the day they left the oak tree for the wider world. I was truly fortunate that those golden sunbeams lit up the bough in the oak tree for one of those days.