For the first six years of my bird photography “career” I rarely encountered banded birds but in the last two years or so I encounter them regularly, some species more than others. Usually when I see a bird with bands or transmitters strapped to their backs I don’t even click the shutter except for documentation purposes.
Six days ago on Antelope Island as I rounded a curve in the road I encountered this Burrowing Owl on a large rock with a clean setting and background. It was a cool morning and the sun had only recently come up so this bird was obviously enjoying the warming rays and showed no nervousness as I approached.
It’s been six months since I’ve photographed a Burrowing Owl but yesterday on Antelope Island my “owl drought” finally ended.
Because of their comical tendencies, expressive faces and uninhibited behaviors juvenile Burrowing Owls just may be the most interesting and entertaining birds I photograph.
I’m normally not one to wax sentimental. I do have those feelings of course but I don’t often express them. Not nearly as often as I should. The Christmas season gives me an excuse…
It’s been a tough summer for me with Burrowing Owls. Normally I spend a lot of time photographing them but this year they’ve been mostly uncooperative to the extreme – too skittish, too far away, too buried in vegetation and too scarce.
But I had a pleasant surprise two days ago on Antelope Island.
As every photographer knows, light angle can make or break an image. In static portrait shots especially, partial side lighting (at perhaps 45 degrees to your subject) emphasizes texture, patterns and shapes and helps to separate subject from background. It’s been said that side light “sculpts” your subject.
I’d been photographing a family of these birds for several weeks but typical of the species they were usually on the ground with obstructing vegetation in front of them or buried too deeply in the sagebrush. But as I approached them on this early August morning (in my pickup, from the road) there were two juveniles and one adult perched high on the sagebrush in nice warm light and there was a clean, pleasing background. My little heart went pit-a-pat at the opportunity but then I had to deal with the harsh reality of depth of field.
The burrow of these owls is at the base of this huge lichen-encrusted rock and the owls seemed to enjoy perching on it. These juveniles were having a blast with their flight maneuvers.
Prepare to lose your heart if you ever have the opportunity to photograph or watch juvenile Burrowing Owls up close. They’re full of spontaneous antics and personality and they’re cute as a button.
The antics of Burrowing Owls are always entertaining but “personality” simply oozes out of the juveniles. 1/400, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This youngster had recently fledged and had begun to do a little exploring. On this early morning I found it on this perch just after sunrise. Thus was further away from the burrow than I’d seen any of the juveniles up to that point. 1/400, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Within just a few minutes it gave me a variety of interesting poses – first an enthusiastic yawn… 1/500, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in and then long and drawn out wing stretch with left foot extended… 1/500, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in which concluded with the wing down and partially hidden behind the rock. Soon after this shot was taken the bird flew back to the comfort and security of the burrow and the rest of its family. Ron
Parallax is the effect where the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions. When an observer moves, the apparent relative motion of several stationary objects against a background gives hints about their relative distance which the brain can interpret to provide absolute depth information. As you can imagine this can be very helpful to birds for flight and for judging prey position. The movement required comes automatically during flight but it can also be provided while perched by exaggerated movements of the head in all three dimensions. Tipping the head also provides cues by changing the relative position of the eyes to the object being viewed. Learning to interpret this information takes practice so many juvenile birds do just that, owls in particular. Techs for the following images – most were taken at 1/640 or 1/800, f/9, ISO 400, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in. All images presented in the order they were taken. Several years ago I spent a lot of time over several weeks photographing a family of Burrowing Owls along the causeway to Antelope Island. Their burrow was very close to the road and they became almost completely acclimated to traffic so I was able to observe and photograph many interesting behaviors of both juveniles and adults from my pickup. Here, this juvenile is simply ignoring me (for the sake of convenience I’ll refer to this bird as a male though I have no idea what sex it…
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…
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…
