![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/short-eared-owl-8131-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA type of photo I rarely post. Or even take.<\/p>\n
This will be a quick post this morning. I slept in, big time – by about 90 minutes. Usually I’m up by about 3:30 but this morning when I rolled over and looked at the clock it was damn near 5 AM. Instant panic – you’ve got a post to do, Bub!<\/p>\n
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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Over the years I’ve posted many photos of a Montana male Short-eared Owl in flight with a vole in his talons (or beak) that was meant to feed his family at the nest. This is his mate and one of their two youngsters near the nest. The actual nest is buried deep within the sagebrush behind them but it was a cold morning so when this photo was taken the female had encouraged her youngster to come out into the semi-open to warm up in the rays of the morning sun. I guess the second chick preferred to sleep instead of joining them. This morning I know that feeling well.<\/p>\n But these two were apparently sleepy too. The female appears to be having a difficult time keeping her eyes open and the youngster is in the middle of one of the most enthusiastic yawns I’ve ever seen, from a human or any critter.<\/p>\n Surprisingly for Short-eared Owls this particular nest in a remote area was close to a road. Over many days this was the only time I parked parallel to it so I’d have a chance to photograph members of the family other than the male. Because they were acclimated to seeing vehicles on the nearby road they accepted my pickup as part of the landscape, even though it moved occasionally. It goes without saying that I never got out of my vehicle even once over the many days I was photographing any of these owls. I didn’t need to be close anyway, after all I was shooting at an effective 1120mm and this photo is significantly cropped.<\/p>\n I have three photos of the female and her precious youngster near the nest. I cherish all three of them, even though neither bird is very clearly seen in any of them.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A type of photo I rarely post. Or even take.<\/p>\n