Short-eared Owls In Flight

These three images are of a mated pair of Short-eared Owls taken two years ago at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Montana.    1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This is the male delivering a vole to his family.  As you can see from my techs I had to max out my settings (especially on the last two images) to try to get enough shutter speed for flight shots.  Each of these photos was taken on different mornings but the light was consistently a challenge while we were there.       1/800, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  This is the elusive female.  I got very few shots of her because she spent most of the time on the nest with her two chicks and I rarely saw her fly.      1/800, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Another look at the male. There’s a good reason for the timing of this post – we’re at Red Rock right now (I prepared this post before leaving and post-dated publication) and anticipation of this trip had me thinking about these wonderful owls again.  We’d have to be pretty lucky to find cooperative owls again but if not there should be plenty of other birds to work with.  The biggest challenge on this trip is likely to be light.  Red Rocks is right on the continental divide and early summer weather up there is volatile and often down-right scary – especially when you’re pulling a camping trailer over 30 miles of dirt roads!  These trips are…

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Just A Shot That I Like… #19 – Burrowing Owl Catching Its Balance

Burrowing Owls on Antelope Island are often a hit or miss proposition.  Occasionally one can find an accessible burrow occupied by multiple birds and get just close enough for quality images without disturbing the owls.  But more often than not they’re difficult to find – especially in a location where the angle of light is good in the morning when I prefer to shoot.     1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This bird was one of a family of owls on the north end of the island that would occasionally sun themselves in the early morning at the top of a sagebrush perch.  Here the owl had momentarily lost its balance while changing position on the branch and I was able to catch a pose I liked as it recovered.  I love backgrounds like this that the island and the bokeh of my lens often provide.  Ron  

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Just A Shot That I Like… #17 – Short-eared Owl In Flight With A Vole In Its Beak

This is another image from my time with the Short-eared Owls at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.  This male was kept very busy hunting voles and feeding his mate and youngsters at the nest.   Typically I would see him hunting far off, dive for a vole, and if he was successful he’d occasionally eat the vole himself but most often he would return with it to a favorite perch in the vicinity of the nest – and without exception he would always carry the vole in his talons before he got to the perch (and always his left talon, but I covered that topic in another post).     1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc However, just before (or just after) he took off from the perch to deliver the meal to his family he would always transfer the vole from his talons to his beak.  I have a theory as to why he did so.  The nest was on the ground at the base of a sagebrush.  Whenever the male landed at the entrance to the nest with the vole the female would rush out and very aggressively grab the vole.  And I DO mean aggressively!  If I’d been him I’d have been afraid to get that close to her with food.  So the male would approach the nest very gingerly with the vole in his beak and drop it in front of him and quickly retreat as she rushed out.  I suspect it was easier for him to avoid a confrontation with her if he could quickly drop…

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Just A Shot That I Like… #6 – Short-eared Owl In Flight With Prey

Sometimes conditions are marginal at best for avian photography and that often seems to be the case for me when I’m presented with an otherwise wonderful opportunity.  Then the decision must be made –  go ahead and shoot anyway, knowing it’s likely that I won’t get any keepers or just pack it in and watch and enjoy the birds?      1/640, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, noise reduction to background   Such was the case with this Short-eared Owl at Montana’s rugged and remote Centennial Valley.  It was an overcast day and there generally wasn’t enough light for photographing birds in flight but this male was regularly delivering voles to his family and would occasionally fly right by me as he did so.  I could have removed my teleconverter to get a little more shutter speed but then the owl would be quite small in the frame so I just decided to fire away and hope for the best.  Even at ISO 800 (the absolute limit for my 7D without getting too much noise) I was often getting shutter speeds of 1/500 or slower at f/5.6 – just not fast enough to get birds in flight sharp. I got lucky with this shot.  As the owl was coming in, the clouds behind me opened up slightly to allow a little more light on the bird and a shutter speed of 1/640 – just enough to get good sharpness on a relatively large and slow flying bird if your focus is well locked on to the subject.  The still shaded Centennial Mountains provided…

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Just A Shot That I Like… #5 – Great Horned Owl In Tamarisk

We recently found a Great Horned Owl that likes to hang out in some tamarisk close to the Great Salt Lake.  Usually the owl is deeply buried in the foliage and can’t even be seen unless you know where to look but of course getting clear shots of the bird is impossible in that situation.    1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc   However on cold early mornings this bird likes to get a little warming sun and has found one spot where it’s open enough that it can soak in some rays and still feel safe and hidden by the enclosing tamarisk.  By careful maneuvering I can get a relatively clear view of the owl from a close vantage point (without disturbing it).   It’s a busy setting for the bird but I like that the spot it has chosen to warm up in is so dense with leaves that they almost seem to wrap protectively around the owl.  We’ve had several opportunities with this bird in exactly the same spot over the last couple of weeks.  At least we thought it was a single bird but then yesterday sharp-eyed Mia noticed (while editing and culling  images) that the plumages don’t match from day-to-day.  There are two owls that use this spot and we have photos of both of them.  A pleasant surprise!  Ron 

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Barn Owls and Phragmites

Barn Owls are among my favorite avian subjects.  They’re uncommon, elusive and rarely active in daytime so they’re devilishly difficult to photograph in good light – especially in flight.   And they’re unique – so different from other owl species (heart-shaped facial disc, smaller eyes, a short squared tail and serrated central claws) that they’re given their own family classification – Tytonidae.  They’re the most wide-spread species of owl on earth, though their numbers are declining. Occasionally, very occasionally, I’ve had the opportunity to photograph them in daylight.  Around here they can sometimes be found hunting for voles at the edge of Phragmites stands at the local marshes during the early mornings of the coldest days of winter.   Phragmites is a very large perennial grass found in our wetlands that causes many problems for wetlands managers because it produces substances that are toxic to more beneficial species of marsh plants.     1/2000, f/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc As problematic as Phragmites can be I’ve found it to be a wonderful background for photographs of birds in flight.  And since these owls fly during daytime only when it’s very cold the Phragmites is often covered with heavy frost in the mornings which can soften the background and make it very pleasing to the eye.   If the grasses are close to the bird they appear fairly well-defined.      1/2000, f/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc But if they’re far away the bokeh of the background is softened even more, giving relatively subtle hints of texture and form.  I think the sharper foreground phrags in this photo…

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Antelope Island Barn Owl Family

There’ll be just a single image in today’s post – the majority of a large family of Barn Owls that are resident on Antelope Island this summer.    Canon 7D, 1/80, f/7.1, ISO 640, EV -1.00, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I have a special fondness for this species but like most avian photographers I’ve been frustrated by them because their almost strictly nocturnal habits make them extremely difficult to photograph (unless you use flash or some other form of artificial light, which I won’t do).  Occasionally I’ve been able to find one out and about during daytime in winter but that’s a relatively rare occurrence.  This is four of a family group of five or six that hang out on the north end of the island.  They are such striking and beautiful birds (in my opinion) that I find it a bit incongruous that they insist on roosting in the mornings on this decidedly unattractive perch.  But hey, if they like it – so do I.  Well, sort of… Since this post consists of only one image I decided to make it 1200 pixels wide instead of my usual 900.  Personally I always enjoy larger versions of images for their better detail.    Ron   

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Short-eared Owls Defending Their Nest Against Predators

Recent reports from others indicate that bird activity on Antelope Island is slowing down now and our experience out there recently would agree with that assessment so yesterday when Mia and I were trying to decide where to go shooting birds we were a little hesitant about another trip to the island.  But even with things slowing down we almost never fail to find something interesting to photograph and yesterday was certainly no exception!   Canon 7D, 1/800, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV 0, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Soon after arriving on the island we noticed a pair of Short-eared Owls, obviously mated based on their behavior.     Canon 7D, 1/1000, f/7.1, ISO 500, EV 0, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc This owl was carrying a vole and we immediately suspected that the pair had a nest in the vicinity, which turned out to be true.  It was quite a distance from the road and buried in vegetation but we could tell its location by watching this owl deliver food to the nest site – either to the mate or to both the mate and chicks.  We watched and photographed the birds for a while but when things slowed down we went further down the island.     Canon 7D, 1/1600, f/8, ISO 640, EV + .67, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc On our return to the area of the nest we immediately saw a quickly developing drama.  A young coyote had apparently just crossed the road and was approaching the nest area and the owls were in…

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Barn Owl in Flight – Finally Again!

It’s been over four years since I’ve been able to get flight shots of Barn Owls and it’s been a very long wait.   Typically Barn Owls hunt only at night but during the cruel winter of 2008 a few of them were forced to hunt in the morning hours just to survive and I was able to get quite a few nice shots of them in flight.  I haven’t seen them hunt in daylight since then, until just recently when I’ve discovered one individual that has been doing it regularly.    1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500 So far Mia and I have had two chances with this bird.  It was flying along the side of the road so I had to speed up to get in front of the owl then quickly turn around so I could photograph it as it flew toward us with the light at the best angle.   This owl was flying very fast toward an apparent destination (rather than hunting) so we’d get a few shots off as it passed by very quickly.     1/640, f/6.3, ISO 500 Then I’d very quickly turn around, race up the road to get ahead of the owl, turn around again and fire away as the bird flew by.     1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500 I was able to do that three times before I ran out of road.  Very exciting!      1/800, f/5.6, ISO 640 Then a few days later, as we were returning from a morning of photographing other birds after clouds had moved in and we…

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Short-eared Owl in the Fog

My friend Mia and I had such a great time in June with the Short-eared Owls at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana that we decided to return in September.  Getting close to them was more difficult this time because they weren’t nesting and feeding young.  However, one morning we got lucky.    A cooperative Short-eared Owl  When we awoke we were socked in with heavy fog.  As it slowly began to clear we went looking for birds and found this owl perched in the middle of the road.  As we approached, it flew a short distance to this post and then allowed us to get very close.  We’re sure this is the same female that we had photographed in June on the same territory.       Short-eared Owl female looking for voles She was very accepting of our presence and within a few minutes was looking for voles below her post perch.  We were right at the edge of the fog and as it would swirl around us, alternately getting thicker and then clearing a bit, we knew that some of our images would show the effect of the fog more than others.  The soft feathers of owls don’t give up their fine detail to photographers easily, even in the best of conditions.  But we simply couldn’t pass up this opportunity with this beautiful female and we still got some shots we like very much.      Short-eared Owl checking us out Occasionally her attention would be diverted from the potential prey in the…

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Great Horned Owl Fledglings and Juveniles

Great Horned Owls (hereafter referred to as GHO’s in this post) have been resident on the Dudley farm in NW Montana for years and are usually successful in raising one brood of youngsters.  Typically they’ll nest in one of the several old granaries available to them.     Peekaboo youngster Most of these older granaries have seen their better days since many were constructed  in the 1930’s and have had to withstand the fierce Montana wind but the owls love them for both roosting and nesting.  Here you can see a very young GHO peering out at me over the back of its sibling.       Siblings on granary floor These are the siblings on the granary floor.  It has been used only for junk storage for many years so it’s very cluttered but the owls don’t seem to mind in the least.   Chicks in tree nest GHO’s will often nest in trees but like other owls and falcons they do not build their own nests, preferring to take over the previously used nests of other species such as Red-tailed Hawks (most commonly), other hawks, crows, ravens and herons.  I found this nest next to a major road about 35 miles from the farm.   I don’t know what species originally constructed this nest but the spring after these photos were taken the nest was being used by a pair of Swainson’s Hawks.  Interspecific  recycling in the bird world…      Three GHO chicks in a tree This is the same nest as in the previous image.  As you can see the…

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Great Horned Owls on the Farm

For perhaps twenty years now there has been at least one pair of nesting Great Horned Owls on the farm where I grew up near Cut Bank, Montana.  They were never there when I was a kid but they’ve sure taken to it since.   This farm still seems like home to me and I return to it at least once every year for a visit with family and of course to check up on the owls.  It’s the perfect place for these birds as it’s isolated, there are many old barns and granaries for the owls to find sanctuary and mice, voles and the ubiquitous Richardson’s Ground Squirrels (gophers) are everywhere.  Both the owls and I love the place! Great Horned Owl in a barn cutout Most often I prefer my birds on natural perches but there’s just something about owls and old barn wood that appeals to me.  I think owls, particularly Barn Owls and Great Horned Owls, often just seem to “fit” in many rustic settings.  In the image above, I like the warm tones of the bird contrasting with the cooler tones of the black background and some of the wood.  Juvenile (no “horns” yet) in warm, early morning light The youngster above was sitting in an east facing cutout in an old granary just as the sun came up.  The effect of the warm light on both bird and wood is fairly dramatic (no saturation added).  This juvenile is wet from the dew, thus the “spikiness” on the top of the head.  They look very different from the…

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