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<\/p>\nA decade ago Burrowing Owls on the island were more common and more accessible than they are today.<\/p>\n
Those were the days my friend.<\/p>\n
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1\/400, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n 7:11 AM:<\/p>\n Shortly after dawn on August 23, 2010 the light on Antelope Island was about as warm as it gets. I don’t remember if there was smoke in the air like we have now but whatever the cause the light was about as golden as I’ve ever seen it on the island.<\/p>\n In most years back then a family of Burrowing Owls nested near the road and on the west side of it so the morning light angle was perfect for photographing owls as they perched in the sage near their burrow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/400, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n 7:11 AM:<\/p>\n This juvenile’s curiosity caused it to parallax my pickup.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n 7:26 AM<\/p>\n Fifteen minutes later the warmth of the light had tamed down noticeably but it’s still very warm and golden. The background in this and the following photos is the Great Salt Lake, not sky.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n 7:39 AM:<\/p>\n Apparently I bored this youngster because ‘he’ broke out into an extended yawn while he was looking directly at me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1250, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n 7:58 AM:<\/p>\n I’ve always liked backgrounds in my owl photos from this location because sand bars in this very shallow part of the lake often create soft and subtle horizontal bands back there. I much prefer these backgrounds to plain blue sky.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Back in those days it was a joy to photograph Burrowing Owls on the island but things are quite different today. Because of increasing pressure from an often ignorant and\/or noncaring public (including experienced bird photographers who should and do know better) most of the owls now reside in burrows in more remote areas of the island and there seems to be fewer of them.<\/p>\n I’ve seen groups of people with point and shoot and phone cameras walking right over the top of owl burrows and I once documented an experienced bird photographer with a long lens walking amongst several burrows and putting intense pressure on the owls as he flushed them from one sagebrush perch to another. If you have the interest that post can be seen here<\/a><\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n Today there are a few burrows that are fairly close to the road but not as close as they used to be, there’s fewer of them and many of them are artificial.<\/p>\n I once had a State Park employee tell me that Burrowing Owls on the island were being “loved to death”. I believe he was right and that’s too bad.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Those were the days my friend.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/burrowing-owl-2646-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"burrowing-owl-2646-ron-dudley\\"")
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