![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/short-eared-owl-8893b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-8893b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd a little mystery involving the physics of light.<\/p>\n
I haven’t had many chances with Short-eared Owls in recent years but three days ago I had a lot of fun with two of them. I plan on posting more photos of them after my upcoming medical adventure so this one is only a teaser.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I think both owls had as much fun toying with me as I had trying to photograph them because they insisted on posing only in sidelight or backlight, no matter where they perched while they were hunting and even though they had other options. This owl held this somewhat unusual wings-down pose for the entire time ‘he’ was on this fence post and I’m not sure why. He always held his wings in a more normal position while he was perched elsewhere.<\/p>\n Does anything in this photo look a little “off” to you? Something does to me.<\/p>\n The top of his eye is in deep shade so why is the catch light in that portion of his eye?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n At first I thought, well maybe I caught him blinking with his nictitating membrane and the catch light is a reflection off of the wet membrane but I don’t think that’s the case. When I crop in even more tightly than this I’m pretty sure it’s a shadow cast by his deeply-set eye in its orbit or possibly by his upper eyelid.<\/p>\n And besides, I took four photos of him in a row and in each of them the shadow’s in the same position. It would be highly unlikely for him to hold his membrane in this position for that long. Additionally, the membrane of this species doesn’t come down from the top of the eye. It originates in the inside corner of the eye and closes pretty close to horizontally across the eye.<\/p>\n Seems to me that on sunny days catch lights would only be reflected off of the portion of the cornea in direct sunlight. And I believe I’ve seen this phenomenon before in Short-eared Owls so that only heightens my curiosity.<\/p>\n No biggie but when I see funky stuff like this in my photos I tend to focus on it until I figure it out. If I ever do.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/short-eared-owl-8893b-big-crop-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-8893b-big-crop-ron-dudley\\"")
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