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1\/800, f\/9, ISO 400, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n These recently fledged Burrowing Owls were some of the first young owls of any species I ever photographed up close. In the summer of 2009 their burrow was along the narrow Antelope Island causeway so they were highly acclimated to vehicles. I spent multiple mornings with them in mid-July so they soon saw my pickup as just part of the landscape and I was able to photograph their natural behaviors almost at will.<\/p>\n If I remember correctly there were five or six siblings in the burrow but these two seemed to have an unusually strong bond. On this particular morning, while some of the siblings were out exploring the area close to their burrow, these two spent much of their time huddled close to each other as they watched me and listened curiously to the clicking sounds from my shutter coming from inside my pickup. But it didn’t take them long to become bored by it all.<\/p>\n Suddenly the youngster on the right was overcome by an overwhelming urge to yawn and ‘he’ really got into it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/800, f\/9, ISO 400, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Naturally that meant that I fired a burst of photos which made more clicking sounds so the owl on the left began to parallax the source of the clicking. The yawn was a long, drawn-out affair and of course the owl on the left was fully aware of what its sibling was doing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/640, f\/9, ISO 400, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n So that owl had to yawn too. Knowing how contagious yawns are in humans it literally made me laugh out loud, resulting in several blurry photos at these slow shutter speeds. Thankfully this one was sharp.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/640, f\/9, ISO 400, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n And then the youngster that caught the ‘yawning bug’ reached over and seemed to thank its sibling for the inspiration by nibbling on its cheek.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/800, f\/9, ISO 400, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Then both owls returned to their previous routine of watching and listening to me before at least one of them appeared to drift off to sleep.<\/p>\n In the summer of 2009 there were at least three active Burrowing Owl burrows along the causeway – this one fairly close to the entrance station on the east end of the causeway and the others much closer to the island itself.<\/p>\n I long for the ‘good old days’ on the island and causeway. It ain’t like it used to be…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In case you thought yawning is contagious only in humans.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/burrowing-owl-9414-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"burrowing-owl-9414-ron-dudley\\"")
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