Barn Owl Update
A few weeks ago I reported a Glimmer of Hope for our Barn Owls. It turns out I was overly optimistic and I felt like I should update the situation.
Category: Owls
A Glimmer Of Hope For Our Barn Owls
I heard some very good news on the Barn Owl front recently. Hawkwatch International reports that a pair of Barn Owls has taken up residence in one of the kestrel nest boxes that HI keeps an eye on and they have laid 5 eggs!
Short-eared Owl In Flight With Prey
This sequence is from the summer of 2010 in southwest Montana. The adult male was kept busy hunting and delivering voles to his family of two chicks and the female on the nest.
Burrowing Owl Youngsters – Hams Of The Bird World
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.
Barn Owl In Flight Showing Dorsal Plumage Patterns and Alulae
Barn Owls have rather intricate plumage patterns and interesting color gradations on their dorsal (back) surfaces but they are rarely seen in their entirety in a single image. That’s partly because to get such an image you need to get them in flight with their wings out and tail spread which is very difficult to do since they’re primarily nocturnal. And when you do manage a flight shot of one you’re usually looking up at them and can’t see much, if any, of the dorsal surface. I thought this image fit the bill. especially with the bird looking down so that we can also see the colors and patterns on the top of the head. Yes, I do wish I had more light in the eye… 1/1600. f/8, ISO 500 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, canvas added for composition, not baited, set up or called in Another thing I like about the image is the clear look at the alulae (plural of alula) or “bastard wings – the first digit or “thumb” on the leading edge of the wing. And this shot shows one more thing that intrigues me – the right alula (left in our view) is extended further forward and at a sharper angle than the one on the birds left, perhaps in compensation for the tipped angle of flight. My research indicates that there’s still debate among experts about whether or not birds have muscular control of the alulae or they only respond to the pressure of air currents. This owl has just spotted potential prey below and is flying very slowly as…
A Close Encounter With A Short-eared Owl
This was a day I’m sure I’ll never forget – my first up close experience with an owl of any species in the wild. I’d only been photographing birds for about a year and I still had a lot to learn – about my gear, about technique and about my avian subjects.
Fighting Male Short-eared Owls
I’ve posted once before about the fighting Male Short-eared Owls I photographed in south-west Montana but I spent several days with these sparring birds and thought they deserved some more attention on my blog.
Short-eared Owl With Prey, Coming At Me
I’m always happy when I can get decent images of an owl in flight. If they’re carrying prey it’s a bonus. And if the bird is flying toward me I often consider it icing on the cake – partly because those kinds of shots are so very often baited, decoyed, set up or called in. As always for me, these were not. I’ve posted one of these shots before but I hoped it might be interesting for some to see a sequence of images as this adult male Short-eared Owl flew toward me with a vole for its mate before veering off to my right. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This first image shows less detail and image quality because the owl was further away as it began to approach me but I decided to include it for context in the sequence. The lower background is sagebrush flats while the upper blues are Montana’s Centennial Mountains in shade. 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Four frames later the owl was significantly closer and flew almost directly at me before veering off – a pattern it followed more than once. I’d guess that it was his way of checking me out for any potential threat before delivering the vole. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Which he’s doing intently here. Eye contact can’t be much…
Barn Owl In Flight Among The Phragmites
It’s funny sometimes, what inspires my next blog post. In this case it was an unexpected and very kind and thoughtful email from one of my readers who is a huge fan of Barn Owls in natural settings. Thank you for the inspiration, Donna!
Juvenile Burrowing Owl Posing Up A Storm
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
Great Horned Owl Framed By Tamarisk
Typically when I find a Great Horned Owl in a natural setting it’s so deeply buried in the tree or foliage that it can barely be seen. This is a deliberate behavior, at least in part to avoid mobbing birds of many species. Crows, for example, will invariably mob an exposed GHO, pursuing it from tree to tree and calling out to other crows to recruit them to join in. 1/800, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This owl, and one other, perched in the tamarisk for about a week but on most days they were virtually impossible to see unless you knew where to look. But on two cold, early mornings I found one of them in this spot where it was exposed to the warming rays of the sun. Its breast and belly feathers are wet, as are the drooping ear tufts. These birds sleep during much of the day but their slumber is light and alert as evidenced by their ear tuft (“horn”) movements in response to any slight sound, even with eyes closed – a behavior that’s interesting to observe if you’re lucky enough to be sufficiently close to a sleeping owl. Ron
Barn Owls On Unnatural Perches
It’s been a while since I’ve seen any Barn Owls out and about and I’m thinking they won’t be flying again during daytime until at least next winter so I decided to bid them adieu for the present with one last post for the season. I generally prefer my avian subjects on natural perches but Ingrid Tayler’s affection for birds on man-made perches in the urban landscape is beginning to instill in me a little more flexibility. Perhaps it isn’t too late for some new tricks from this old dog… 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited set up or called in At Farmington Bay WMA there are numerous signs posted directing hunters to where they can hunt and where they cannot and those signs are favorite resting spots for hunting raptors. When I come across an owl on one of these signs I’ll typically drive on by unless there’s a possibility for take-off shots but I made an exception for this one despite the less than ideal light. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited set up or called in Another favorite perch is this kestrel nesting box at the top of a hill. From this elevated vantage point the birds can hunt visually over a large area without expending the energy required for flight – a significant advantage in the depths of a long, cold winter when calories are at a premium. This owl looks like it might be wary of me and about to fly, but it isn’t. It was calmly…
Short-eared Owl Tattoo – A Work In Progress
Something a little different from me this time… In the past I’ve had a wide variety of requests for use of my images, including such disparate projects as prints, magazine and book publications, non-profit scientific and educational organizations (which I nearly always allow without a fee), fancy rubber stamps, uses by painters and other artists as subjects for their work, an image to be lacquered into the top of the communal dining table of a new fire station in Temecula, California and several of my Northern Harrier (a type of hawk) images have been used in the AV8B Harrier (jump-jet) pilot training software at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, California. But a few weeks ago I got something new for me – a request to use one of my avian images for a very large, “photo – realistic” tattoo. Jenna, from New Zealand, contacted me and requested to use this image of a female Short-eared Owl in flight (with brood patch visible on the belly) as the basis for the tattoo. Her tattoo artist, Matt Jordan of Ship Shape Tattoo, Orewa, New Zealand, needed a high-resolution version of the image in order to get enough detail to make the very large tattoo photo-realistic. Even though this shot was taken in extremely low light and doesn’t have quite as much detail as most of my photos, in the end there was enough. Matt Jordan is apparently very talented and in high demand so it took Jenna several months to get the project started. It’s a long, drawn out and painful process. Jenna’s first session with Matt lasted for 6…
Short-eared Owl Perch-hunting
A couple of weeks ago I posted two shots of this Short-eared Owl perched on this frost-covered rabbitbrush. In those images the bird was reacting to me which isn’t really a natural behavior. A direct look toward the viewer from those strikingly colorful eyes is certainly riveting but more natural behaviors also appeal to me. 1/500, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 t c, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Short-eared Owls hunt primarily “on the wing” – they’re typically not “sit and wait” hunters like many other raptors. But this bird noticed what was probably a vole at the base of the rabbitbrush and its reaction to it was obvious. It stared intently down for some time which resulted in a natural pose that I like. Ron
Juvenile Burrowing Owl Parallaxing
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…
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A Glimmer Of Hope For Our Barn Owls
I heard some very good news on the Barn Owl front recently. Hawkwatch International reports that a pair of Barn Owls has taken up residence in one of the kestrel nest boxes that HI keeps an eye on and they have laid 5 eggs!
Short-eared Owl In Flight With Prey
This sequence is from the summer of 2010 in southwest Montana. The adult male was kept busy hunting and delivering voles to his family of two chicks and the female on the nest.
Burrowing Owl Youngsters – Hams Of The Bird World
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.
Barn Owl In Flight Showing Dorsal Plumage Patterns and Alulae
Barn Owls have rather intricate plumage patterns and interesting color gradations on their dorsal (back) surfaces but they are rarely seen in their entirety in a single image. That’s partly because to get such an image you need to get them in flight with their wings out and tail spread which is very difficult to do since they’re primarily nocturnal. And when you do manage a flight shot of one you’re usually looking up at them and can’t see much, if any, of the dorsal surface. I thought this image fit the bill. especially with the bird looking down so that we can also see the colors and patterns on the top of the head. Yes, I do wish I had more light in the eye… 1/1600. f/8, ISO 500 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, canvas added for composition, not baited, set up or called in Another thing I like about the image is the clear look at the alulae (plural of alula) or “bastard wings – the first digit or “thumb” on the leading edge of the wing. And this shot shows one more thing that intrigues me – the right alula (left in our view) is extended further forward and at a sharper angle than the one on the birds left, perhaps in compensation for the tipped angle of flight. My research indicates that there’s still debate among experts about whether or not birds have muscular control of the alulae or they only respond to the pressure of air currents. This owl has just spotted potential prey below and is flying very slowly as…
A Close Encounter With A Short-eared Owl
This was a day I’m sure I’ll never forget – my first up close experience with an owl of any species in the wild. I’d only been photographing birds for about a year and I still had a lot to learn – about my gear, about technique and about my avian subjects.
Fighting Male Short-eared Owls
I’ve posted once before about the fighting Male Short-eared Owls I photographed in south-west Montana but I spent several days with these sparring birds and thought they deserved some more attention on my blog.
Short-eared Owl With Prey, Coming At Me
I’m always happy when I can get decent images of an owl in flight. If they’re carrying prey it’s a bonus. And if the bird is flying toward me I often consider it icing on the cake – partly because those kinds of shots are so very often baited, decoyed, set up or called in. As always for me, these were not. I’ve posted one of these shots before but I hoped it might be interesting for some to see a sequence of images as this adult male Short-eared Owl flew toward me with a vole for its mate before veering off to my right. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This first image shows less detail and image quality because the owl was further away as it began to approach me but I decided to include it for context in the sequence. The lower background is sagebrush flats while the upper blues are Montana’s Centennial Mountains in shade. 1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Four frames later the owl was significantly closer and flew almost directly at me before veering off – a pattern it followed more than once. I’d guess that it was his way of checking me out for any potential threat before delivering the vole. 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Which he’s doing intently here. Eye contact can’t be much…
Barn Owl In Flight Among The Phragmites
It’s funny sometimes, what inspires my next blog post. In this case it was an unexpected and very kind and thoughtful email from one of my readers who is a huge fan of Barn Owls in natural settings. Thank you for the inspiration, Donna!
Juvenile Burrowing Owl Posing Up A Storm
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
Great Horned Owl Framed By Tamarisk
Typically when I find a Great Horned Owl in a natural setting it’s so deeply buried in the tree or foliage that it can barely be seen. This is a deliberate behavior, at least in part to avoid mobbing birds of many species. Crows, for example, will invariably mob an exposed GHO, pursuing it from tree to tree and calling out to other crows to recruit them to join in. 1/800, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in This owl, and one other, perched in the tamarisk for about a week but on most days they were virtually impossible to see unless you knew where to look. But on two cold, early mornings I found one of them in this spot where it was exposed to the warming rays of the sun. Its breast and belly feathers are wet, as are the drooping ear tufts. These birds sleep during much of the day but their slumber is light and alert as evidenced by their ear tuft (“horn”) movements in response to any slight sound, even with eyes closed – a behavior that’s interesting to observe if you’re lucky enough to be sufficiently close to a sleeping owl. Ron
Barn Owls On Unnatural Perches
It’s been a while since I’ve seen any Barn Owls out and about and I’m thinking they won’t be flying again during daytime until at least next winter so I decided to bid them adieu for the present with one last post for the season. I generally prefer my avian subjects on natural perches but Ingrid Tayler’s affection for birds on man-made perches in the urban landscape is beginning to instill in me a little more flexibility. Perhaps it isn’t too late for some new tricks from this old dog… 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, natural light, not baited set up or called in At Farmington Bay WMA there are numerous signs posted directing hunters to where they can hunt and where they cannot and those signs are favorite resting spots for hunting raptors. When I come across an owl on one of these signs I’ll typically drive on by unless there’s a possibility for take-off shots but I made an exception for this one despite the less than ideal light. 1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited set up or called in Another favorite perch is this kestrel nesting box at the top of a hill. From this elevated vantage point the birds can hunt visually over a large area without expending the energy required for flight – a significant advantage in the depths of a long, cold winter when calories are at a premium. This owl looks like it might be wary of me and about to fly, but it isn’t. It was calmly…
Short-eared Owl Tattoo – A Work In Progress
Something a little different from me this time… In the past I’ve had a wide variety of requests for use of my images, including such disparate projects as prints, magazine and book publications, non-profit scientific and educational organizations (which I nearly always allow without a fee), fancy rubber stamps, uses by painters and other artists as subjects for their work, an image to be lacquered into the top of the communal dining table of a new fire station in Temecula, California and several of my Northern Harrier (a type of hawk) images have been used in the AV8B Harrier (jump-jet) pilot training software at the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, California. But a few weeks ago I got something new for me – a request to use one of my avian images for a very large, “photo – realistic” tattoo. Jenna, from New Zealand, contacted me and requested to use this image of a female Short-eared Owl in flight (with brood patch visible on the belly) as the basis for the tattoo. Her tattoo artist, Matt Jordan of Ship Shape Tattoo, Orewa, New Zealand, needed a high-resolution version of the image in order to get enough detail to make the very large tattoo photo-realistic. Even though this shot was taken in extremely low light and doesn’t have quite as much detail as most of my photos, in the end there was enough. Matt Jordan is apparently very talented and in high demand so it took Jenna several months to get the project started. It’s a long, drawn out and painful process. Jenna’s first session with Matt lasted for 6…
Short-eared Owl Perch-hunting
A couple of weeks ago I posted two shots of this Short-eared Owl perched on this frost-covered rabbitbrush. In those images the bird was reacting to me which isn’t really a natural behavior. A direct look toward the viewer from those strikingly colorful eyes is certainly riveting but more natural behaviors also appeal to me. 1/500, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 t c, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Short-eared Owls hunt primarily “on the wing” – they’re typically not “sit and wait” hunters like many other raptors. But this bird noticed what was probably a vole at the base of the rabbitbrush and its reaction to it was obvious. It stared intently down for some time which resulted in a natural pose that I like. Ron
Juvenile Burrowing Owl Parallaxing
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…