Tag: athene cunicularia

Burrowing Owl – Same Bird, Same Perch, Different Angle

I’d like to make a point with this post.  It’s one that every experienced bird photographer knows on some level but in the heat of the moment (it can be very exciting getting close to a “good” bird in nice light) it’s one that is easily forgotten.  I’m getting much better at remembering but I still slip up occasionally. The point?  Very minor changes in your shooting position can make huge differences (positive, negative or indifferent) in your photo.  I’ll illustrate that point with a couple of shots that I took this morning.  They’re not my best Burrowing Owl images but they’ll serve their purpose here.    1/160, f/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This morning we think we found a new (to us) Burrowing Owl burrow right next to the road on Antelope Island that we’ve probably driven by several hundred times and never noticed.  We don’t know for sure that it’s an owl burrow because we didn’t get out of the pickup and go tromping all over the area to inspect it.  And right next to it was this juvenile owl, perched on a sagebrush, where we’d never seen an owl before.  It had been cloudy but some light had begun peeking through a “crack” in the clouds when this shot was taken. It’s a “busy” perch and when the sun began to come out the bird was sidelit so I decided to change my position slightly…      1/320, f/7.1, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or…

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The Banded Burrowing Owls Of Antelope Island

Populations of Burrowing Owls in North America are in sharp decline.  They are an Endangered Species in Canada where only about 800 pairs remain as there has been a 73% drop in their numbers in that country over the last 30 years.  They are a species of “special protection” in Mexico and they are “listed” in 9 of the 18 western states in the U.S. that they still occupy. The reason for this disastrous decline is not well understood, but “human activity” is strongly suspected.  In order to get a better handle on what is happening to them, multiple banding studies are in progress and that includes Antelope Island.     1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, shot from pickup window, not baited, set up or called in I first noticed banded juvenile Burrowing Owls on the island this past summer.   Out of about a dozen juveniles in one area, several of them were banded but it was difficult to get a precise number because they’re hard to tell apart when some are in their burrows and the rest are flying all over the area. Most of the photos I have of banded owls were taken in early morning light but this one was taken later in the day (as you can tell by the position of the catch light and the angle of the shadows on the eyes), so the light was brighter and harsher.   1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, shot from pickup window, not baited, set up…

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Some More Burrowing Owls

I simply can’t resist photographing Burrowing Owls.   1/100, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc These youngsters often have a balance problem when they try to perch on the relatively unstable sunflowers, which can be a good opportunity for the photographer to get some interesting poses.  One of the problems here was that the sun was just coming up and the light was very low as you can see from my very slow shutter speed.  Even though this bird fluttered on the perch for quite a while I ended up trashing most of those shots because they just weren’t sharp enough. But the other problem just about drove me batty for a while.  For some reason my Canon 7D wouldn’t allow me to adjust my exposure (ev).  How very frustrating to have this bird giving me such nice poses while I’m thinking the entire time that I’m over-exposing the shots and can’t do anything about it! It turned out that my exposure for these shots was just right (I’ve done no exposure adjustment in post-processing with this image) but it took me (us) a half hour to figure out what the problem was with my camera.  Mia saved the day by downloading the 7D manual to her phone and in the end the problem turned out to be that I had inadvertently switched on the “lock” button on my camera.  Sheesh!      1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 400, 100-400 @ 300mm I thought some of you might like to “meet” most of the Burrowing Owl family I’ve been photographing this summer.  From left to right #3 and #5…

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Juvenile Burrowing Owl In Flight

This morning was the first time we’ve been out photographing since our Montana trip.  I’ll post more images from Big Sky Country soon but I thought I’d break it up a bit with a couple of photos from this morning.     1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc The juvenile Burrowing Owls were quite active at just the right time – when the sun was still low but high enough to give me enough light and shutter speed that I didn’t have to crank up my ISO too far.  I haven’t had a lot of luck with Burrowing Owls in full flight so I was quite pleased with this shot even though I had to add a bit of canvas to the image for composition.      1/2500, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc These youngsters are beginning to show some signs of maturing by the development of more color on the breast.  As you can see, this is one of the young birds that has been banded.It’s very entertaining to watch these juveniles. In the morning before it gets too hot they often fly from perch to nearby perch and when they’re on the ground they seem to enjoy manipulating objects like twigs and leaves and nibbling on flowers.  They interact with each other with the enthusiasm of youth.  The problem for the photographer is that when they’re on the ground it’s virtually impossible to get a clear shot of them through all the vegetation. I really enjoy these little guys. Ron

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Juvenile Burrowing Owl – Wing Exercises

I simply can’t resist posting a couple of more images of  juvenile Burrowing Owls that were taken last week.   1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc It may look like this bird has lost its balance on the sage and is trying to regain it but I believe it was simply exercising its wings.  It flapped and fluttered for quite a while – long enough for me to get several dozen images of the action (I saved 18 of them).     1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I do wish there’d been a bit more light though.  The sun ducked behind a cloud just as just as this youngster started flapping.  Should’a heard Mia cussing that cloud!  As per usual, I kept my cool and just went with the flow.  🙂 Actually, we’ve both been known to cuss clouds on occasion but I’m much better at it than she is.  She just doesn’t have my enthusiasm.  Or originality… Ron  

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Landing Juvenile Burrowing Owl

We had some more fun with the family of Burrowing Owls this morning.  There are two adults and at least seven chicks.  Some of the youngsters have been banded, which may be good for the owls but it isn’t particularly good for photography so I was happy to see that this one wasn’t wearing any jewelry.    1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 One of the adult birds spent much of the morning perched on sagebrush to the left of this one and occasionally one of the youngsters would come in and land close by.  I was pleasantly surprised by the eye contact in this image.  Usually they’re looking down at this point in the landing process but I think a slight headwind gave this bird time enough to glance up at my pickup just to make sure we continued to be no threat.  In the very next frame the owl was beginning to look down at its landing spot on the sage. I love the very early morning light on these owls but especially on the juveniles.  The tradeoff is that ISO 640 is pushing it for my Canon 7D but I always like to have good shutter speed when an opportunity like this suddenly appears.  I had taken off my tc but still barely fit the owl in the frame.  The upper background is a distant sandbar and sloping shoreline of the Great Salt Lake.      1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4 I was able to get five sharp shots as this owl was coming in.  My favorite of the sequence is the first image…

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A Plea For Respect For The Burrowing Owl

If there’s a group of birds on the face of the earth that is almost universally loved it seems to me that it would have to be owls. Many folks are captivated by them for their large forward-facing eyes, quizzical expressions, eerie vocalizations and the sense of mystery provided by their generally nocturnal habits.  Others appreciate their many unique adaptations, such as silent flight and their ability to turn their heads 270 degrees.  There’s just something about owls…   1/640, f/9, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  And for many of us Burrowing Owls are at the pinnacle of that adoration.  Their comical antics, especially those of the juveniles, tug at our heartstrings and make us smile.  And they’re more accessible to viewing than are most owls because they’re active during daylight and spend much of their time on the ground close to their burrows instead of being hidden high up in trees.  The flip-side to all this is that Burrowing Owls are extremely vulnerable to unthinking human intrusion – especially while they’re nesting and caring for chicks or juveniles.     1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc In Utah the burrows of these owls are typically found among sagebrush, which they often use as perches during early morning.  This allows the patient and ethical birder or photographer a good look at the birds without having to get too close in order to see through the vegetation usually found in the burrow area. It’s not unusual for Burrowing Owls to nest close to roads and when they do…

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An Itchy, Fidgety Burrowing Owl On A Wiggly Perch

It all started with an itch.    1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Two days ago just as the sun was coming up over the Wasatch we found this adult Burrowing Owl perched on a dried sunflower.  The lower background is the Great Salt Lake.  The bird was sunning itself and pretty static and I was hoping for some kind of action.      1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Then it tried to scratch its face while perched on this spindly and unstable perch and that’s when the action began.  (Full disclosure – this shot is a little out-of-order but it shows the scratching behavior better than any I got at the very beginning – it tried to scratch the same spot on its face several times during this sequence).      1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc  Every time the owl tried to scratch its face the sunflower stem would move around and throw the bird off-balance so the wings would go out and I got some interesting poses in nice light.      1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc I was able to get many images of the balancing act as it progressed but the owl was sidelit so in quite a few of them one or both of the wings  and one side of the face were in shadow.  These are the images with the best pose and light combinations that I was able to get.  The secondary wing feathers seem to be still growing in from a recent molt.    …

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Burrowing Owl Against A Clean Background

A few days ago we found this adult Burrowing Owl in early morning light and perched high on some rabbitbrush with the Great Salt Lake as background.  After I got the pickup stopped it only gave me a second or two of posing before it flew off.    1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Most of my images of this species show the bird on the ground with a cluttered setting so I like the cleanness of this image.  I also enjoy the fact that with the sun so low both eyes are well-lit even at the top of the corneas where there’s usually some shadow from the brows. If I’d had more time I’d have adjusted my settings to get more depth of field for the tail but sometimes, just occasionally :-), birds don’t cooperate with my best intentions… Ron

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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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Burrowing Owls of Antelope Island

 I simply adore watching and photographing Burrowing Owls.  They show more personality and cute little quirks than any other avian species I’ve photographed – especially the juveniles.  There are usually three problems with shooting these birds though – finding them in the first place, getting close enough to them for high quality photographs without disturbing their normal activities or making them nervous and catching them out in the open or on an elevated perch so that the vegetation that usually surrounds their burrows doesn’t obscure the birds.  Two summers ago a family of these owls had their burrow right along the road on the Antelope Island causeway.   They were obviously very accepting of all the traffic so getting close without disturbing them was no problem – I’d just pull up on the road edge close to their burrow and stay in my pickup to photograph them.   I photographed them for almost two weeks and I’ve kept a ridiculous number of those images- just can’t make myself delete many of them.  The family consisted of both parents and four juveniles.  I spent most of my time photographing the juvies – they’re just so vivacious, spunky and full of life that they make wonderful subjects.  The problem at this burrow site was two-fold – lots of obscuring vegetation and then when they did perch up higher it was usually on some unattractive pieces of broken concrete adjacent to the burrow.    1/1250, f/9, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc Occasionally one of the juveniles would be perched on this rock when we…

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