Barred Owl... 12-05-20

 Jonas and I met up this morning to go and photograph a Great Horned Owl, but we never found her. This was a new area for me and although we didn't find the GHO Jonas spotted this Barred Owl. We took some pictures of the Barred Owl before we continued looking some more for the GHO , then came back for a second round of images with the Barred Owl. I watched the Barred Owl take three side steps and placed it's body right next to the trunk of the tree when Jonas walked up to the tree to see if he could get a better angle. Those sneaky owls...

Chuck
 

 

Hey, is that you! …and Oh, where did you come from…

I was going to walk around in another area of the woods today, but I ended up back walking in the area of the owl.

I checked a couple of her known hang-outs and on the way back I spotted what I thought might be her in a Northern White Cedar. Most of what I saw were branches but when I looked through my binoculars I could see the tufts of feathers on her head.

I had to get out my camera and tripod, although I knew from my location that it wouldn’t be a good shot. Since I shoot a 500mm f/4 lens , Nikon D6, tripod with a gimbal its not the easiest thing to maneuver, so I try to get a couple shots of the owl then work my way to a better spot if I can. I included one of those first shots of her before I moved. Sometimes that entails going a pretty good distance, like today, out of my way so as not to disturb her.

I would have like to have the owl with the sun or brighter sky behind me, but she was facing the wrong way which wouldn’t be much of a problem except there were just as many if not more branches in the way. So I had to make my way around the other way so I would be looking into the brighter sky/sun.

I got in position and took a couple shots before I noticed I had a branch in front of her face. I couldn’t see the branch when I was looking with only my eyes.  I decided to move my tripod just to my right a little when I saw her open her wings to fly off. I couldn’t get the tripod set in time to get a shot of her.   I watched her fly off.

Now I had to go get my backpack that was laying somewhere upon the top of a steep incline, so I decided to walk toward the cedar tree when a second owl flew off. I never saw the second owl in the tree. Based upon the size I believe I been photographing this female this year and the second owl today was a smaller male which I don’t think I’ve seen before. This was the first time I saw them together. 

and a female Pileated Woodpecker from today...

 

Who's that above me...Great Horned Owl

I went back to the woods this afternoon. I planned to walk back out where I found the Great Horned Owl yesterday and just sit and wait for it to make a call. I found a large down tree for a nice backrest. There was some recent white wash on the large tree. I got settled in and had a couple video cameras rolling for about 10 minutes. I saw a a person come into the woods wearing some reflective clothing and then disappear, but he was associated with some machinery that was close by cutting trees.

While sitting next to the white-wash I finally looked directly above me and saw the Great Horned Owl sitting high up on an Oak tree branch. My face was pretty much in line with the owl and the white-wash on the down tree. She was probably wondering what I was doing just sitting there on the ground. Now I had to set up my tripod, put my gimbal on it then attach my lens and camera. I knew I was going to make some noise, but she only looked down at me.

There was no way I could get a good shot of her directly underneath her using my 500mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter and the fact it wouldn’t be an interesting shot. I walked to one area but there were too many branches in my way. I needed to move again to another area but the sun was shining on one or two branches casting a shadow on her. I tried to find a better view, but it wasn’t going to happen. So these are the best shots I got of her today…shadows and all.

She eventually flew off her perch landing a short distance away. I started walking her direction, but she flew off again before I could get there. I called it a day…on the way out I spoke to the person I saw walking in he woods and he said they are removing unwanted trees and should be done in a day or so. 

 

Here's the video...

Great Horned Owl....

I went back to the woods this afternoon.  I planned to walk back out where I found the Great Horned Owl yesterday and just sit and wait for it to make a call. I found a large down tree for a nice backrest. There was some recent white wash on the large tree. I got settled in and had a couple video cameras rolling for about 10 minutes. I saw a a person come into the woods wearing some reflective clothing and then disappear, but he was associated with some machinery that was close by cutting trees.

While sitting next to the white-wash I finally looked directly above me and saw the Great Horned Owl sitting high up on an Oak tree branch.  My face was pretty much in line with the owl and the white-wash on the down tree. She was probably wondering what I was doing just sitting there on the ground. Now I had to set up my tripod, put my gimbal on it then attach my lens and camera. I knew I was going to make some noise, but she only looked down at me.

There was no way I could get a good shot of her directly underneath her using my 500mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter and the fact it wouldn’t be an interesting shot. I walked to one area but there were too many branches in my way. I needed to move again to another area but the sun was shining on one or two branches casting a shadow on her. I tried to find a better view, but it wasn’t going to happen. So these are the best shots I got of her today…shadows and all.

She eventually flew off her perch landing a short distance away. I started walking her direction, but she flew off again before I could get there. I called it a day…on the way out I spoke to the person I saw walking in he woods and he said they are removing unwanted trees and should be done in a day or so. I’ll do a video later…  

 

Chuck

Searching for the Great Horned Owl...

I put together a video of my meandering around the woods with the calls of the Great Horned Owl eventually leading me to her.  / 11-30-20

 

 

Great Horned Owl

 Today I was back in the woods looking for the Great Horned Owl. I stopped by some of the places that I know where it has roosted in the past. While at one of the places I heard two screeches and a hoot, but it sounded like it was some distance away from me. I began walking toward the sounds. I meandered around when I heard the owl again. It wasn't a hoot and it wasn't a screech (female GHO call), but it was fairly often and not that far away. I needed to turn around and once again I had to meander to the sound because of the thick brush. Eventually after zig-zagging around and not hearing the sounds anymore I turned around to leave the area and that's when I spotted the owl in a tree nearby. The light was fading fast. I took some images from a couple different directions where I first spotted the owl, but most of them had branches in front of the owl making them less than desirable. I was able to photograph the owl from several different directions but I only used the best one I got. The owl was very vocal with lots of grooming, but I was now shooting at ISO 8000 with a shutter speed of 1/40 second so those images were not usable. I had my GoPro running when I heard the owl calling and when I spotted the owl, so I might put together a video later on... It's been almost 2 months since I was able to photograph this owl....

Great Horned Owl Screech Call

 I was out on another walk today hoping to see the Great Horned Owl. Although, I didn't see it I heard it give out a screech call.