I guess I have to rewrite my story about the Great Horned Owl and her offspring from two days ago. Despite some rain and dark clouds in the sky I checked the nest again this evening and to my surprise I saw indeed TWO owlets in the nest this time. At my arrival the mother was present but I didn’t see any of the young owls. Later, while watching some American Robins in the grass, I saw the adult owl flying away from the nest. A few minutes later again suddenly two little heads peaked over the edge of the nest as you can see in the photo below. The mother returned, stayed for a few minutes, and flew off to another tree on the east side of Mud Lake Park. It is the first time during the last four years that we can finally see two owlets. This just made my day!
The photography was a real challenge today. With very little light available I had to bump up the ISO to 1000 and was still shooting slow shutter speeds between 1/60s and 1/125s. I usually try not to exceed ISO 400 in order to have as much detail as possible in my photos. Any noise reduction in post process means loss of detail (higher ISO = more noise). In addition the wind was shaking the trees and I’m just happy that a few shots turned out ok.