Tag: snow

Barn Owls and Phragmites

Barn Owls are among my favorite avian subjects.  They’re uncommon, elusive and rarely active in daytime so they’re devilishly difficult to photograph in good light – especially in flight.   And they’re unique – so different from other owl species (heart-shaped facial disc, smaller eyes, a short squared tail and serrated central claws) that they’re given their own family classification – Tytonidae.  They’re the most wide-spread species of owl on earth, though their numbers are declining. Occasionally, very occasionally, I’ve had the opportunity to photograph them in daylight.  Around here they can sometimes be found hunting for voles at the edge of Phragmites stands at the local marshes during the early mornings of the coldest days of winter.   Phragmites is a very large perennial grass found in our wetlands that causes many problems for wetlands managers because it produces substances that are toxic to more beneficial species of marsh plants.     1/2000, f/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc As problematic as Phragmites can be I’ve found it to be a wonderful background for photographs of birds in flight.  And since these owls fly during daytime only when it’s very cold the Phragmites is often covered with heavy frost in the mornings which can soften the background and make it very pleasing to the eye.   If the grasses are close to the bird they appear fairly well-defined.      1/2000, f/8, ISO 400 1.4 tc But if they’re far away the bokeh of the background is softened even more, giving relatively subtle hints of texture and form.  I think the sharper foreground phrags in this photo…

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Barn Owls in Flight

Flight shots of Barn Owls are very difficult to get because these birds are almost strictly nocturnal and typically fly and hunt only at night.  Photographing birds in flight in the dark or very low light is virtually impossible without using artificial lighting methods which I will not do for ethical reasons. Barn Owl in flight during in full daylight   I had never even seen a Barn Owl in flight until the winter of 2007-08.  That unusually frigid winter began early and brought more snow than usual to the valleys of Utah.  Suddenly, during January and much of February, Barn Owls were hunting the marshes close to the Great Salt Lake during daytime – sometimes until 10 or 11 AM.  Their usual strategy was to hunt for voles (very similar to mice) along the edges of Phragmites growth in the wetlands.  Typically it was very cold on those mornings – often between 0 and +20 degrees Farenheit which made it very uncomfortable standing outside in front of a tripod mounted camera for hours on end!  I very nearly lost some digits to frostbite many times but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.    Barn Owl hunting voles along frosty Phragmites edges I usually preferred to get Phragmites in the backgrounds of my flight shots if possible because they make such a nice backdrop.  In the photo above, there had been heavy fog with sub freezing temperatures so literally everything was covered with a heavy coating of frost.  A magical setting.        Barn Owl skimming Phragmites in background Sometimes the…

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