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. …