![\"barn](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/barn-owl-2797-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThis is the time I’ve both looked forward to, and dreaded – when Barn Owls hunt during daytime.<\/p>\n
Normally this species is\u00a0strictly nocturnal so they fly only during times that photography is\u00a0virtually impossible.\u00a0 But around here, when it turns very cold and the snow is\u00a0deep, they must continue to hunt during\u00a0the day in order to survive.\u00a0 It’s my guess that there are two reasons for the change in behavior; the cold increases their demand for body heat and\u00a0the food to supply it, combined with the difficulty of hunting voles when the snow is so deep.<\/p>\n
The last time these birds hunted regularly during daytime was several years ago when we had a similar frigid winter.\u00a0 Many of those birds didn’t survive until spring.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Yesterday there were several Barn Owls hunting in mid-day soon after our latest storm began to clear out which finally allowed for some good light.\u00a0 It was brutally cold with perhaps a foot of fresh snow on the ground, on top of the snow from previous storms.\u00a0 Notice the ice\/snow clumped on the feet of the owl.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I’ve mentioned before how difficult it can be to get a catch light in this species because of their deeply set eyes.\u00a0 I didn’t get any light in the eye in this image but I liked the wing position and the bird against the pastel sky as it scanned the\u00a0snow-covered ground\u00a0for voles.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Here the owl briefly looked at me, which allowed for direct eye contact.\u00a0 The lower background is a stand of Phragmites and other vegetation,\u00a0with snow up top.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This shot should give you some idea of the conditions out there.\u00a0 The tracks on the right are the “road” and the driving was treacherous.\u00a0 I drive a full-sized\u00a0pickup truck with four-wheel\u00a0drive and even though I have lots of experience driving on snow (I lived many years in northern Montana) I once\u00a0almost slid into a ravine and another time into a parked car.\u00a0 One group of hunters had their boat and trailer slide off the road and\u00a0very nearly\u00a0into a\u00a0frozen\u00a0pond.\u00a0 It was tricky passing other vehicles on the road.\u00a0 In this image I had pulled off the tracks to allow another vehicle to pass and you can see that the snow was so deep that I “snowplowed” snow in front of me, then\u00a0had to back out to get on the road again.<\/p>\n All in a day’s work for a bird photographer in northern Utah during winter…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the time I’ve both looked forward to, and dreaded – when Barn Owls hunt during daytime. Normally this species is\u00a0strictly nocturnal so they fly only during times that photography is\u00a0virtually impossible.\u00a0 But around here, when it turns very cold and the snow is\u00a0deep, they must continue to hunt during\u00a0the day in order to survive.\u00a0 It’s my guess that there are two reasons for the change in behavior; the cold increases their demand for body heat and\u00a0the food to supply it, combined with the difficulty of hunting voles when the snow is so deep. The last time these birds hunted regularly during daytime was several years ago when we had a similar frigid winter.\u00a0 Many of those birds didn’t survive until spring. \u00a01\/2000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in Yesterday there were several Barn Owls hunting in mid-day soon after our latest storm began to clear out which finally allowed for some good light.\u00a0 It was brutally cold with perhaps a foot of fresh snow on the ground, on top of the snow from previous storms.\u00a0 Notice the ice\/snow clumped on the feet of the owl. \u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in I’ve mentioned before how difficult it can be to get a catch light in this species because of their deeply set eyes.\u00a0 I didn’t get any light in the eye in this image but I liked the wing…<\/p>\n![\"barn](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/barn-owl-2843-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"barn](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/barn-owl-2793-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"snowplow](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/snowplow-0635-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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