{"id":47824,"date":"2017-04-27T06:01:08","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=47824"},"modified":"2017-04-27T06:01:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T12:01:08","slug":"monotone-short-eared-owl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/27\/monotone-short-eared-owl\/","title":{"rendered":"Monotone Short-eared Owl"},"content":{"rendered":"

And a great look at their feathered legs.<\/p>\n

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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

I was hoping that this year would be another great year for Short-eared Owls in northern Utah but it’s not looking like it’s going to happen. There are a few around but numbers don’t seem to be nearly\u00a0as dense as they were during the 2016 breeding season.\u00a0Perhaps that’s true only in the areas I regularly haunt and numbers are better\u00a0elsewhere. I hope so.<\/p>\n

I photographed this one five days ago as it perched on an old\u00a0fence post in partial side light. These images are very nearly monotone and I like that effect.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

At first the owl posed for me very little except to move its head in different directions as it scanned for prey in the nearby grasses.<\/p>\n

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1\/2500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n

But eventually the bird roused (shook its feathers to rearrange them) and I was able to get several interesting shots as it did so.<\/p>\n

One of the things I really like about this image is the very good look at those feathered legs and feet. I seldom get to see them this well but during the rouse the owl extended its legs,\u00a0raised its “skirt” and\u00a0erected even those short leg feathers which makes them stand out more than usual. Those feathers extend nearly to the ends of the toes and\u00a0make the legs appear fuzzy and soft.<\/p>\n

Because Short-eared Owls depend on a fluctuating food source (mostly small rodents) they show considerable local variation in numbers and breeding success from year to year –\u00a0to the point that they’re often considered to be “nomadic”. I hope that explains why I’m seeing fewer of them this year and they’re doing better elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And a great look at their feathered legs.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47833,"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":false,"_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":[334,356],"tags":[35,3370,1845,3371,994,279,311],"class_list":["post-47824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-short-eared-owls","tag-asio-flammeus","tag-feathered-legs-and-feet","tag-monotone","tag-nomadic","tag-rouse","tag-short-eared-owl","tag-utah-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/short-eared-owl-4800b-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-crm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47824","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=47824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}