“Rouse – The action of a bird erecting its feathers and then shaking them; part of grooming; a sign of a relaxed and content bird”.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/p>\n
![\"short-eared-owl-3785-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3785-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nI photographed the bird this past summer in Box Elder County, Utah. The slightly soft wooden post next to the perch is probably a bit of a distraction but for me the owl quickly grabs my attention and the post is largely ignored. I was hoping for takeoff shots but this bird was relaxed in my presence and more interested in taking it easy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"short-eared-owl-3795-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3795-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nWhen it unexpectedly began to rouse I fired off a quick burst and this series is the result.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"short-eared-owl-3796-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3796-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nI found it interesting that before the rouse began the owl rarely looked at me but it’s eyes were glued to me during the entire shaking session. I see the same tendency in many other birds, raptors in particular. It’s my working theory that\u00a0birds may\u00a0feel somewhat vulnerable during a rouse so they watch any nearby potential threat carefully until it’s over.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"short-eared-owl-3798-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3798-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nThe owl was flopping around like a rag doll during this unusually vigorous rousing session.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"short-eared-owl-3799-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3799-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nLoose feathers\u00a0sometimes fall away from the bird while they’re shaking and this time was no exception.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"short-eared-owl-3801-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3801-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nI’m sure the owl was aware of the falling feather (very few things escape their attention)…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"short-eared-owl-3803-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3803-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\nbut it seemed disdainful of the loss.<\/p>\n
Birds rouse to rearrange their feathers and to expel any bothersome debris from between them. The raised feathers create gaps that allow the bird to remove dirt and any damaged or loose feathers and the shaking action causes that debris to\u00a0fall away from the bird. They also rouse after bathing to shake off the water.<\/p>\n
I always feel somewhat honored when a bird rouses in my presence because it can be an indicator that I’m not perceived as an immediate threat. Conversely,\u00a0raptors in particular\u00a0sometimes rouse in preparation for takeoff.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I needed an owl fix this morning and this rousing Short-eared Owl fit the bill.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,395,356],"tags":[35,689,994,1240,279,311],"class_list":["post-43561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-miscellaneous","category-short-eared-owls","tag-asio-flammeus","tag-box-elder-county","tag-rouse","tag-shaking","tag-short-eared-owl","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/short-eared-owl-3798-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-bkB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}