A combination of stealth, technical nous and a bit of luck resulted in a hobby photographer capturing these stunning shots of the elusive barn owl.

The Audubon Society has taken an interest in the photographs by Darren Simmons and revealed it is working on plans to increase protection for Bermuda’s native owl population.

Mr Simmons was out on a “snack run” to a variety store at about 10.15pm on Wednesday when he spotted something on Mangrove Bay Road in Sandys. He soon realised it was an owl with a freshly caught rat between its talons and sprang into action.

“Being a photographer, you see something and your first instinct is grab your camera,” he said.

Unfortunately, he had only his iPhone to hand and was not happy with the shots he initially took, so he raced to the store, returned home and grabbed his professional camera gear — a Nikon D3500 and a selection of lenses.

He returned to Mangrove Bay Road and to his delight the owl was still there tucking into its prey.

“When you are shooting wildlife, you don’t want to disturb it so I tried to stay back as far as possible,” Mr Simmons explained.

“My 85mm lens didn’t get me close enough and I didn’t want to encroach so I used my medium telephoto lens. In low-light situations like that you have to capture enough light without getting too much grain in the photo.”

Mr Simmons took his photos and posted four of them on the Facebook group 441 Photo Bermuda.

He added: “I’m happy with the photos. In my excitement and trying to dial in my settings to get the best pictures I missed a few shots but I took about 115 and I think these four were the best.

“As a hobby photographer every day is a learning day. I pretty much shoot any and everything.”

Jennifer Gray, vice-president of the Bermuda Audubon Society, said the organisation was aware of the photos and congratulated Mr Simmons on a great capture.

She said that there are believed to be a number of nesting pairs of barn owls living in Bermuda but they faced numerous threats.

Ms Gray said: “Not a lot is known as they are cryptic and hard to find. Jeremy Madeiros [Bermuda’s senior terrestrial conservation officer] did a study in the 1990s when he was fresh out of college and he discovered the local population had declined by 25 per cent, and was down to 12 or 13 pairs.

“No study has been done since. The Audubon Society is keen to get reports and is hoping that in the future we can repeat the study and see where we are today.”

Ms Gray said that barn owls were threatened with extinction locally owing to multiple threats, not least to their habitat through development and the fragmentation of open space.

“These animals hunt on grasslands and open fields, cow pastures, pig pastures, farms, arable land … they feed in select areas not too far from their roosting sight.

“If you take a piece of farm land or field they are forced to go farther from home, which puts them in competition with other pairs.

“Also, 80 per cent of their diet is rats. We have a rat problem and are working very hard to eliminate them but the anticoagulant found in some rat poisons can kill owls. The rat slows down, it is easier for owls to hunt them and if it eats more than one, it will bleed internally.

“We would like to work more closely with Vector Control to see what they are using, ensure the use of safe poisons and see if we could be doing more trapping as opposed to poison.”

She said kites, especially those with nylon strings, should be removed from trees as the birds can get caught up in them.

The barn owl is a protected species under the Protection of Birds Act, but the society said it could be added to a newer list of protected species to give it even more protection.

Ms Gray said that the Audubon Society wished to keep track of sightings of barn owls and encouraged any members of the public to report sightings to the organisation through its website or Facebook page.

• This story has been amended to correct the spelling of Ms Gray’s surname. We apologise for the error.