Two Owls for Two Visitors

Year 8

Over the past two days I’ve taken two people owling … my friend, Jeff and my son, Erik. Even though the weather has been sunny, cold with a bit of wind which is generally not good for owling, the Great Gray Owls came through in flying colors. However, when it comes to Snowy Owls I am becoming frustrated. I have seen the beautiful male snowy both of the last two days, including this morning, but always from a great distance. Oh well …

I also may have found the nesting site for my local Great Horned Owls. The number of post sundown hikes in the dark which I have taken recently is amazing. If I’m wrong I will have to wait for the crows to fill me in on the proper location when the owlets start to move about the nesting tree. Last year the 1st egg was laid on February 8th.

Erik’s morning owl

Viral Snowy Owl Video

Year 8

Even though I managed internet projects at Honeywell for almost three decades … many times I DID NOT understand what made something popular. One year ago I posted this image (and a few others … see original post) which featured Snowy and Raven. For most of the past 12 months, views = nada. The video was watched, but not in any large numbers. Oh my, have the number of views increased. In the past week over 80k additional people have watched this video where the Snowy Owl and Raven have a short battle. Views are now over 104,000. (video link for email subscribers)

Images

Snow Squall Great Gray Owl

Year 8

It had been a week since I had gone out looking for Great Gray Owls. While most people might think the conditions at sunup were poor (heavy overcast skies, light winds, and intermittent snow squalls), I thought they were idea. Given Great Grays hunt using their hearing, and are a nocturnal bird I was happy with the low light.

I found the same bird I visited last Sunday, and worked at getting photographs that reflected the lighting. Flight shots were a dream, but capturing the snow was very desirable. Thankfully, owls are one of the few bird species that will stand completely motionless which allows for long exposures.

1/6 the of a second shutter speed … Snow Squall Owl (using a monopod … hand held would have been almost impossible in this low light … camera shake)

The camera settings which yielded the image show above also netted lots of blurry pics. Thus, I shortened up the shutter speed to 1/50th of a second (6+ times faster than the photo immediately above … no more long snow streaks / paths)

Finally, here are a few images of the same bird from last Sunday … also ideal conditions with a bit more light.

Remember, consider what you want to accomplish with your photographs before choosing camera settings. I wanted snow tracks, but knew any movement on the part of me or the owl would ruin the image. I then tweaked the camera settings, but always knew flight shots were totally impossible.