![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/short-eared-owl-8859b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-8859b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nJust a quick post from me today. If you can believe it I slept in until 4:45 AM which is almost an hour late for me.<\/p>\n
Short-eared Owls have been unusually difficult for me to come by this year so yesterday morning\u00a0I was happy to catch this presumed male in flight with prey (a vole). I sure wish he’d been a little\u00a0closer though.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,\u00a0Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n
I watched for some time as he hunted a pasture far away from me. When he eventually started to take an indirect path in my general direction I did all I could\u00a0on my end\u00a0by raising my lens and locking onto him.\u00a0The rest was up to him but he never did come in quite\u00a0close enough for high quality\u00a0photos\u00a0before he crossed the road in front of me on his way to presumably\u00a0deliver the vole to\u00a0his family on their nest. This is the last photo of him I got out of 9 when he was closest to me but it’s cropped to only 40% of the original image so I don’t have great detail.<\/p>\n
But it’s been several years since I photographed a Short-eared Owl in flight with prey and that was in Montana\u00a0so I decided to post it anyway. I really like the flight pose with the\u00a0wings up and the owl flying one direction while looking in another. And the vole is well separated from the body and wings\u00a0of the owl so it’s very easily seen and he has good light on his face with his yellow eye standing out well.<\/p>\n
I’m almost positive this bird is a male because of its relatively light color (females are generally darker than males) and the fact that only males provide food to the nestlings while the female is on the nest caring for eggs or brooding chicks.<\/p>\n
This may not be my best photo of an owl in flight with prey but it will tide me over until I have another opportunity.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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Short-eared Owls have been unusually difficult for me to come by this year so yesterday morning I was happy to catch this presumed male in flight with prey (a vole).<\/p>\n