THE UNEXPECTED

May 14, 2020

I’m an advocate for going out on a shoot prepared and with a goal in mind. But sometimes things take their own turn and the best intends become obsolete or an opportunity comes up, totally unexpected. While driving home last night from Bankston County Park I suddenly saw an owl from its backside beside the road, perching in a tree and overlooking a field, just doing what owls do when the night starts. I turned around at the next opportunity, prepared the camera in my lap, and drove back. It was a Barred Owl and it turned its head at me as expected. I stopped in the middle of the road, framed, and fired a few shots. With the field below still in the sun, a third of a stop exposure compensation was all what it took to expose for the owl’s face.

You can imagine, after several first sightings of some warblers (see the last blog post) I was already very happy. Well, the unexpected photo opportunity with the Barred Owl made a “cocktail hour” mandatory after arriving at home… 😊

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM, @ 600 mm, 1/160 s, f/6.3, ISO 400,

TAKING A BREAK

May 16, 2018

Tonight the Barred Owl used our roof ridge as a perch for its hunting efforts. I could see the silhouette against the evening sky. It was quiet and peaceful and while I watched this magnificent bird, mother raccoon ransacked the suet feeder on the balcony at the other side of the house… Did I say it was peaceful…? 😏

The photo of the Barred Owl is from last week. This is how I found the bird Friday morning in a tree at the edge of our woods. I took the time to get the tripod out. With good support I had no problem to shoot at ISO200 and 1/80s.

I’m taking a break from posting here in the blog for a little while. I’ll be back soon. Enjoy the warm and sunny weather, always take the camera with you, and don’t miss the opportunity to make the best photo of your life!

NEWS FROM THE BARRED OWLS

May 10, 2018

The canopy of all the trees around is closing very quickly now, making it harder every day to get a clean shot of our Barred Owls. As you can see in my second picture below from two days ago, I finally had a chance to photograph the owlet. I’m not happy with the picture because I had to employ a speed light as my main light source but I saw its silhouette against the evening sky and the only way to make the click for this documentary shot was to use flash. It was so dark already that I’m surprised that I got away with a halfway sharp image.

A day earlier, last Monday morning, I witnessed some drama in our woods. I heard and saw both adult owls and they were celebrating a successful hunting effort. One of them had a bird in its talons and as far I’m concerned it may have been a young Blue Jay. While it flew out of sight to a different tree the other owl sat kinda proudly in best morning light in a tree across from my office. The picture above was made shortly after while a Blue Jay attacked the owl and tried to scare it away. I have seen this behavior before. The Blue Jays are pretty fearless and hit the owl with their wings, hoping that this predator goes away, but in this case it was obviously too late.

STORY WITHOUT PICTURE

May 6, 2018

Today’s nature story from our woods here above the Little Maquoketa River Valley can’t be told with a picture due to the lack of light. The photo above is from April 26, and is just supposed to support my story. As the avid reader of my blog already knows, we have watched a pair of Barred Owls this spring and finally saw yesterday an adult owl delivering a chipmunk or mouse to a big cavity in a hickory tree only ~25 yards away from our house. We had suspected that the nest was there but didn’t really have a proof until yesterday.

This evening, sitting on the porch with a glass of wine after sunset and enjoying the mild weather, I heard a subtle whistling call and saw the owl flying away from the nest site. Looking again at the tree we saw the silhouette of a small owl. No doubt, this is an owlet who just started its branch hopping period in life. I can’t wait until tomorrow and hope to get a glimpse of this young owl. The rapidly coming out leaves will make it more and more difficult to spot an owl in the trees every day that passes by and my hope is that the owlet is at least tomorrow still nearby. Otherwise it will be like searching for a needle in a haystack…

OWL AT SUNSET

April 25, 2018

Barred Owl, Little Maquoketa River Valley, Iowa ------------

Joan and I sat down with a glass of wine on our porch this evening when suddenly one of our Barred Owls flew across the front yard very low, went up again, and landed in a tree nearby. The camera was waiting, ready to shoot, near the door and within a few seconds I had the bird in my viewfinder. We have seen the pair of owls every evening during the last few days. Sometimes it was too late for even thinking about a picture but today we had the best light so far. It is an exciting story for us, although we still don’t know for sure about their offspring and where the nest is located. We just guess it is very close…

IT TOOK ME 11 YEARS!

April 21, 2018

I bought my first digital SLR camera almost exactly 11 years ago. It took me that long to make some photos of a Barred Owl. It was sitting in one of the oaks at the edge of our woods this evening. This owl nests here every year and we can hear their distinctive call “Who, cooks, for-you, who, cooks, for-you, all” every night and sometimes even during the day. You can’t imagine how happy I am to have finally some images of this mostly nocturnal bird. I still haven’t figured out where the nest of the owl is, I just know it is very close. Last night, right after the bird had called again, I could hear some pitched noise just from outside my office window, obviously from a young bird. Actually I had another story and photos for you from today, not even less exciting, but the joy about this accomplishment prevailed.

Friends who follow my blog regularly know that I usually don’t set the ISO in camera higher than 200, and it is very rare that I exceed ISO 400. The noise reduction that is required with higher ISO in dim light comes with the loss of detail, and I believe detail is important for bird photography. Today was such an exception. I didn’t want to risk ending up with blurry photos only and so I dialed in ISO 800. The exposure was still as low as 1/125s, actually too slow for handholding at 600 mm focal length, but I guess turning on the VR (vibration reduction) helped to walk away with some pictures in focus.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, @ 600 mm, 1/125s, f/6.3, ISO 800