Four days ago I visited Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and saw my first Short-eared Owls of the season. Two of them! I didn’t get any photos of either one but I’ll admit that the experience got my SEO juices flowing again so last night I reviewed some of my previous images (joyfully reliving some of my experiences with them) and ran across this series of three shots that I haven’t posted before.
The sequence is from the summer of 2010 in southwest Montana. This adult male was kept busy hunting and delivering voles to his family of two chicks and the female on the nest.
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in
The first two images are quite similar but this one shows the top of the left wing better and includes some of the sagebrush flats in the background at the bottom of the frame…
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in
while this image, two clicks later, has slightly more direct eye contact and lacks the greens of the sagebrush at bottom.
1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in
In the last image the wings are almost in a horizontal position.
Through all of this past bitterly cold and very long winter one of the things that kept me going was thoughts and memories of “my” Montana owls, both Great Horned and Short-eared. And yes, I’m already planning summer trips to visit them again.
Can hardly wait…
Ron
So nice series from 500mmf/4 with 1.4 tc..I have wondered so long how the lens works with tc..thanks so much for this show and the your motivation for me to learn bird photography.
I watched with pleasure your photos….congratulations.
WOW! What a joy to see these pictures.
Those are INCREDIBLE photos!! (as usual!) Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much for finding and sharing these magnificant pictures. I would so love to see an owl flying like that, it must have thrilled you. I’m excited for you to go to Montana as well Ron because the pictures you take there are so beautiful especially when they are of owls, old fences and the beautiful barns and outbuildings at your family’s farm.
Janice, your comment meant a lot. It tells me that you enjoy, from my photos, what I love in Montana just being there.
I hope you get to see your flying owl one day.
Ron- I appreciate your photography more each day! Just bought a bird photography book and all they talk about is baiting and calling birds. What a disappointment! I like the way you capture images the “Right Way”. You should be very proud of your work and the patience it takes to capture natural images! These short-eared owls are just another great example. Keep ’em coming.
agreed….:)
Tim
Thanks very much, Bob. I’m glad to know that we share the same distaste for baiting.
Excellent job Ron! Beautiful flying images! Short-eared Owls are great.
Thank you, Dick.
I’m impressed with their wingspan….I bet they look very strong in flight.
My favorite is image one.
The body angle, head position, the sense of “weight” on the wings, seems to lend itself to more depth than the other two. 🙂
Tim
Yes, their wingspan is impressive, Tim – part of what makes their flight so buoyant.