![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/burrowing-owl-6424b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/5000, ISO 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 like this Burrowing Owl\u00a0photo\u00a0for its fine detail and the clean look at the bird. For the elevated perch I prefer rustic wooden posts over metal ones but at least this one is old and rusty rather than painted.\u00a0Side light doesn’t always work for me but in this case I do like the effect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, ISO 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 This is a Short-eared Owl\u00a0giving me the stink-eye.\u00a0Notice that the perch is an\u00a0unusually large wooden fence post (corner posts are often massive). Back in the days when I was submitting images to a nature photography critique site (Nature Photographers Network –\u00a0NPN) images were often seriously dinged\u00a0when the perch was\u00a0particularly large compared to the size of the bird.<\/p>\n I suppose their reasoning was that such a large perch distracted from the bird and\/or the size scale seemed disproportionate. I guess I’ve never understood that point of view. After all, if the perch is a bush or a tree it would often fill much more of the frame than this. Perhaps the difference for some folks is the old natural vs unnatural perch thing. But personally I have no problem with the size of this fencepost compared to that of the bird. I actually think its size adds some interest somehow…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, ISO 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 This is a dark morph Swainson’s Hawk casting a pellet (the perch is one of those painted metal posts I don’t like). I was slow on the trigger and very\u00a0nearly missed the pellet falling\u00a0at the bottom of the frame. And then like a dummy I stopped my burst thinking the action was over (it wasn’t).<\/p>\n What we see falling is only a small portion of the entire pellet – the rest of it\u00a0can still be seen in the\u00a0throat of the hawk. When the rest of the pellet came out I missed catching it falling. This type of behavior often happens very fast and you have to keep your wits about you to capture it.\u00a0Sadly, I had a momentary lapse…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In this huge crop of the previous (slightly soft)\u00a0image we can see the pellet a little more clearly.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n