Monday, January 8, 2007

Short-eared Owls

Monday, January 8, 2007
7 comments
Disclaimer: This post will not dazzle you with quality bird photography.


Birding at dusk on Saturday at The Wilds, I enjoyed nice long looks at a number of distant short-eared owls. As much as I willed them closer and squeaked like a meadow vole, I could not get a single one of these birds within reasonable camera range. That's reason enough to go back on a sunny winter evening.

These images are evocative (photo-speak for out of focus, poorly framed, and birds tiny in the frame) and I hope they'll give you a bit of a sense for what it's like to watch these mini-Mothras in action.

7 comments:

On January 8, 2007 at 6:35 PM Anonymous said...

Hmmm, must have been short-eared owl weekend. Trip out to friends' house on Sunday at dusk, they live in short grass prairie east of the Black Hills of SD. Grazing land with shelterbelts scattered, usually see raptors along the drive. Owls had been reported on that stretch of road, lo and behold, there he/she was. Flushed off power pole by car going by, flew parallel to the road along with us, good view...if we'd had a camera , they would have been "evocative" photos, too.
Caroline in SD

On January 8, 2007 at 8:39 PM mon@rch said...

It is wonderful to be able to come across some of these Short-eared Owls!! They are soo much fun to watch!

On January 8, 2007 at 10:11 PM Susan Gets Native said...

I would be esctatic to get some bad photos of short-eared owls.

:)

On January 8, 2007 at 10:58 PM Anonymous said...

Some things were never meant to be captured on film. It's a bonus if you can.

On January 8, 2007 at 10:59 PM Anonymous said...

Some things were never meant to be captured on film. It's a bonus if you can.

On January 9, 2007 at 9:29 AM Rondeau Ric said...

All that new, fancy equipment and the birds still won't cooperate.

I think that may be a rule of bird photography.

On January 9, 2007 at 3:13 PM janet said...

You call short-eared owls Mothra too? That's janetspeak for short-eared owl. I'm forever telling my partner, Nancy, that I am going to Plum Island to look for Mothra.

Does your camera have a video mode? That might be the best way to capture the moth-like flight.


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