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<\/p>\nAfter more than 15 years of photographing birds I’m still fine tuning my field ethics.<\/p>\n
It’s no secret to aficionados of Antelope Island that there’s a Burrowing Owl burrow right next to one of the roads on the island. Two days ago I was driving that road in order to access one of my favorite parts of the island when I saw a car parked off of the left side of the road in front of me and almost directly across the road from the burrow. I presume the car’s driver was a photographer. As I got closer I realized that one of the owls was perched on the dirt mound at the burrow.<\/p>\n
I paused briefly but eventually I had to drive between the car on my left and the owl on my right in order to reach my intended destination. As I did so I expected the owl to disappear down the burrow or, more likely, fly away. But the owl didn’t budge as I passed so I turned my pickup around with the intention of pulling up behind the other car so I could take a few shots of the owl from a respectable distance.<\/p>\n
But from that vantage point my view of the owl was obstructed by sunflower stalks so I made the decision to drive around the right side of the car in front of me in hopes of getting a clear view of the owl without spooking it by driving between the bird and the car again.<\/p>\n
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It worked. For perhaps 30 seconds I had an unobstructed view of the owl in good light and at first the bird seemed calm and accepting of the presence of two vehicles. When a bird is standing on one foot it usually means it isn’t nervous.<\/p>\n
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But then without warning the owl took off. I was lucky to get this shot without clipping its uplifted wings and with very little obstruction from the many sunflower stalks around the burrow.<\/p>\n
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This is a vertical composition of the same photo.<\/p>\n
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I got one more shot of the owl in flight but here he’s too close to the top edge of the frame for a composition I like and I’m not fond of the sunflower stems right in front of the face of the bird.<\/p>\n
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If you go back for another look at the takeoff shot you’ll see that the owl was ‘chattering’ as it took off and I heard the chattering clearly. Almost certainly that means that it was my presence that spooked the owl and I’m not happy about that. I hate flushing birds, raptors especially and owls most of all. The owl was apparently comfortable enough with one vehicle that close but two vehicles was too much.<\/p>\n
I regret my decision to turn around to photograph the owl. I should have just continued on my way after I passed the other photographer the first time and that’s what I’ll do if a similar situation presents itself again. Live and learn.<\/p>\n
The closeness of the burrow to the road is unfortunate. Sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the owls abandon the burrow because of too much pressure from traffic, bird lovers and photographers.<\/p>\n
If that were to happen, I don’t want to be responsible for it any more than I might already be.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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After more than 15 years of photographing birds I’m still fine tuning my field ethics. (4 photos)<\/p>\n