Six hungry mouths to feed and only one vole.
Due mostly to a persistent pattern of cloudy morning weather I’ve been posting more older photos than usual lately and today’s post continues with that tendency. The photo below was taken in June of 2017.
1/4000, f/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
Here we see eight Burrowing Owls at their burrow, six somewhat darker juveniles and the two lighter adults in the foreground. The adult on the left with its back to us had just landed with a vole in its talons which the other adult immediately grasped in its beak.
Immediately after this photo was taken the adult with the vole turned around and delivered it to the second juvenile from the right. Some of the youngsters showed more interest in the vole than others so I believe they were all generally well fed. When all of the juveniles are hungry the entire clan competes aggressively for delivered food.
The owls were far away and the late morning light was harsh so the image quality of the photo suffered but I think it documents interesting behavior so I decided to share. Long ago I posted several other photos of this family but this one is new to Feathered Photography.
Ron
Ron, This is my first post. It looks like I see 7 chicks, 4 standing, 2 hunched over behind the parents and 1 on the right side of the picture, in front of the parent with its back following the same arch as the parent. It looks like it’s eyes are looking towards the camera.
The elevator mode is funny!
Seeing Burrowing Owls stand up on fully extended legs makes me giggle for some reason. Actually, seeing any bird in that position brings a chuckle. 😂
I couldn’t imagine feeding 6 kids, but this group seems to be right in the middle of clutch size — 2-12, according to Cornell (12??? Holy cow!).
Marty, I’ve seen 8 or 9 several times but I don’t remember seeing 12.
I can only imagine the work in keeping all those youngsters fed – much less the work in keeping them satisfied.
And, like many of your posts, this emphatically starts my day off in a way that I hope it continues. Owls are complete heartmelters, and the burrowing owls even more so.
EC, I’m always happy to contribute to the quality of your day!
Owls are a good way to start the morning! I don’t know how they keep the kids all fed!
Nor do I, April.
Great shot!
Only one vole on this round, but I bet they can find a lot more, at least the number of young suggests that there are much more prey in their environment.
Yup, cloudy, windy, every once in a while sun peeks through, terrible light! That is our predicament as well.
Dick, this morning light was predicted to be marginal at best but I had to try so I went out shooting anyway. The light turned out to be much better than expected but there were virtually no birds out and about. The entire area was literally crawling with deer hunters which certainly didn’t help.
‘Tis the season – suspect it will we worse than usual this year with more hunters, many of them inexperienced – makes for a dangerous situation! 😞 Of course, ammo being in short supply in favored calibers may be a limiting factor…….😉 Then there’s the weather…….
I’m pretty sure if you look up the word “cute” in the dictionary, you’ll find a family of burrowing owls! What a special species on so many levels! BTW, that’s NOT to say other species aren’t special…quite the contrary. It’s just that I’m talking about burrowing owls now. 😉
While on the trip to the Snake River Canyon with a passel of falconers celebrating the peregrine delisting about 20-ish years ago, Morley Nelson told us that the local burrowing owl populations were suffering from humans taking pot shots at them from the road. Color me a Pollyanna, but I just could NOT imagine that! I could not (and still cannot) wrap my brain around the why of that. What’s WRONG with humans? Where is the disconnect in a human’s mind that makes that an OK thing to do? I fervently hope that’s not still happening, but I fear it is.
What????? Sometimes I despair of our species. Often I despair.
Personally EC, sometimes I think we DESERVE extinction! But don’t forget that I’m a heretic, 😉
You are so not alone. And, if we did go extinct, I can’t see it being a worse world.
Just when I think we can’t get any worse…
Laura, I’ve reached the point where abominable human behavior no longer surprises me.
I get that, but I TRY to keep being surprised, expecting a different result. I guess that means I’m a crazy heretic. It is what it is 🙂
💔
That IS a large brood to feed! 😳 As you mentioned, they don’t act like they are starving! Must have been a good vole year……😉
“Mini” chinook – 34 a 3:30 now 32 – “may” make 38 before the next round..
Judy, unless they’re from Montana some folks wouldn’t understand how a temp of 34° could be considered a chinook… 🙂
Wonderful family portrait, Ron.
It’s so nice to see everyone gathered around the dinner table, even if the one on the left appears to being saying “if I have to eat one more vole…”
You may be right about that bird on the left, Lyle. Several of them seemed completely disinterested in food.
That’s a great photo. Love the looks of those two in the center checking out the photographer. And Mark’s comment – very clever.
Thanks, Everett.
So nice to see a big healthy (apparently) BuO family!
Agreed. Sadly I see fewer of them every year.
Ron – maybe in this case – the disclaimer should read “Not Humanly Baited”. Sorry I just couldn’t pass that one up… 😜
That vole certainly ‘baited’ the youngsters in…