![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/shsort-eared-owl-5020-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-5020-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI saw a lot of Short-eared Owls yesterday morning but most of them were maddeningly uncooperative. This one was an exception.<\/p>\n
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1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, 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 had him in good light and I liked the pastels of the clean, bi-colored background but his chosen perch was an unattractive metal fence post so flight shots were my goal. I was at a good distance for takeoff and flight shots so all I could do was hope\u00a0he launched at an angle where I could see his eye and his face wasn’t in shade. I got more owl butt-shots during takeoff yesterday than I care to count so I wasn’t particularly optimistic.<\/p>\n He took off at a much steeper angle than I anticipated and I instinctively jerked my lens in response so I cut off half of his body in the first shot but…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, 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 immediately after that I did get one photo that pleased me. I like the position of the wings, the hanging feet and the good look at\u00a0his face and eye. Sadly, the end of another fence post (not the one he took off from) poked up\u00a0into the bottom of the\u00a0frame a little so I\u00a0reluctantly removed it. I’m hesitant to alter my images like that but on those occasions when I do I always disclose what I’ve done so I don’t deceive viewers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 400, 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 In the next shot in the burst I clipped both<\/em> wings! I only lost a few pixels of that right wingtip\u00a0but a clip is a clip…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Occasionally on my Short-eared Owl posts I tentatively identify the sex of the bird, as I’ve done here by referring to this one as a probable male. 38 minutes after I photographed\u00a0him I\u00a0was able to get a few long distance shots of a possible mated pair that shows one of the differences between the sexes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before I could get my lens on them these two birds\u00a0had been\u00a0interacting with each other in a way that could have been fighting or maybe it was something else. But they’re most likely a male and a female and possibly\u00a0even\u00a0a mated pair. Females are generally noticeably darker than males so I believe the bottom bird is likely\u00a0a male and the top bird a female – her face is darker as are the tops of her wings. However, there’s some\u00a0overlap in these\u00a0traits so sexes cannot reliably be distinguished by color.<\/p>\n Females are also about 20% larger than males but in this\u00a0photo the presumed female is further away than the male (and softer) so judging relative size in this shot\u00a0isn’t completely reliable.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I saw a lot of Short-eared Owls yesterday morning but most of them were maddeningly uncooperative. This one was an exception.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/short-eared-owl-5027-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-5027-ron-dudley\\"")
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