![\"barn](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/barn-owl-3731-ron-dudley.jpg\")
1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nI captured this image last December 27th at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge at 9:29 AM so the bird was obviously flying in full daylight. I\u00a0saw it hunting far in front of me so I turned my pickup at an angle on the road, turned the engine off and just waited to see if the bird might\u00a0eventually fly my way as it hunted the canal edges next to the road.<\/p>\n
Miraculously it\u00a0did just that and I was able to get quite a few\u00a0shots as it approached. I’ve posted some of the others previously but this one is new to my blog. In many of those images there is no catch light in the eye because the owl was looking down as it hunted so I appreciate the light in the eye here.<\/p>\n
Folks in\u00a0most other areas of the country (and in the world for that matter) marvel at our opportunity to\u00a0see and photograph Barn Owls flying in\u00a0daytime during cold winters here in northern Utah and I have a working theory that just might (or might not…) explain\u00a0the phenomenon. Barn Owls don’t like extreme cold – if you look at a range map you’ll see they’re not found or are rare\u00a0in most of the coldest areas of the US.\u00a0Many readers will recall that the Barn Owl I cut out of barbed wire in Montana last year was an extremely\u00a0uncommon find in that frigid\u00a0state.<\/p>\n
Conversely, without\u00a0cold temperatures and long-lasting snow the birds won’t be hunting during daytime. So perhaps northern Utah is in that narrow geographical band where Barn Owls are found in\u00a0fairly good\u00a0numbers and it’s cold enough to have sufficient long-lasting snow (in unusually cold winters)\u00a0to make them hunt during daytime but it’s not so cold that they won’t live here.<\/p>\n
Since Barn Owls are essentially non-migratory they can’t\/don’t use that behavior as an avenue of escape from the cold.<\/p>\n
I’m speculating of course and if I’m right\u00a0it may only be part of the equation\u00a0but it seems logical to me.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Normally Barn Owls are a strictly nocturnal species so photographs of them in flight are difficult to come by. After all, photography does require light. <\/p>\n