![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/short-eared-owl-8204-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-8204-ron-dudley.\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus an update on my problems with my older teleconverter and my final strategy for a remedy.<\/p>\n
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Stunning flight shots of owls don’t come easy so the pain is real when we screw them up simply because we make a poor decision.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 250, 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 Many birds have favorite perches and this speed limit sign is definitely a favorite of this particular Short-eared Owl. I’ve found ‘him’ perched here on my last three trips to the area.<\/p>\n And he doesn’t mind the occasional vehicle going by, even if it’s big and noisy. The first time I spotted him on the sign several weeks ago I wasn’t yet close to him when a truck pulling a cattle trailer and spewing clouds of dust from the gravel road approached from the opposite direction and passed within about 10′ of the owl. I couldn’t believe it when he barely flinched.<\/p>\n This is the same owl on the same sign a week ago today. Even though he likes to perch on the sign and I’m glad he has it to hunt from it isn’t my favorite perch aesthetically so my goal was takeoff and flight shots, if he ever took off after prey while I was there. I was just a little too close to have a good chance to keep him in frame with my teleconverter on but I remembered that I’d already removed it for an earlier photo opportunity so I was good to go.<\/p>\n The problem is I remembered wrong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 250, 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 My teleconverter was still attached to my camera so I clipped or cut off body parts in all of the best photos of him in flight. Otherwise several of them would have been excellent shots.<\/p>\n Short-eared Owls are unusually difficult to find this year so it’s very possible, even likely, that I won’t have another opportunity with this much potential anytime soon.<\/p>\n Another rookie mistake, even after almost 13 years of photographing birds. Even veteran photographers have to keep their wits about them in the field and this time mine escaped me. All bird photographers, veterans or not, are guilty of such lapses but having company doesn’t remedy any of the pain.<\/p>\n The best we can hope for is that we learn from our mistakes and reduce their frequency.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/short-eared-owl-8212-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"short-eared-owl-8212-ron-dudley\\"")
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