Posts in Category: owl
India! Indian Scopes Owl
Indian Scopes Owl: Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — This Indian Scopes Owl was roosting, literally, right outside my room at our hotel in Sawai Madhopur while we were visiting Rathambore National Park. It was an old British Colonial hotel will expensive grounds and well shaded verandas all around. And owls! I photographed it from the ground one day and, here, from the second floor veranda at close range. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th. +.7EV.
India! Mottled Owl
Mottled Owl: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — One last Mottled Owl before we leave Keoladeo. We saw at least a dozen in our 3 days there. They apparently have no fear of humans. Sony Rx10iv at 591mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Eastern Screech Owl
Eastern Screech Owl: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — One last look at the little Eastern Screech Owl that was roosting over the boardwalk at Magee. It was there throughout my visit, but after this day, it moved over to a dense conifer about 20 feet down the boardwalk, and roosted mostly out of sight within the boughs. (That did not stop the crowds gathering at the spot trying for a glimpse.) He seems very intent on something in the undergrowth that I could not see. OM System OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom @ 1600mm equivalent (using the digital tele-converter). Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/800th, -.3EV.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Eastern Screech Owl
Eastern Screech Owl: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — On my first walk around the boardwalk at Magee, someone pointed out this tiny Eastern Screech Owl perched in a hole in a dead snag right beside the boardwalk. This is one of a pair that is often along that section of the boardwalk where there is a nest box for their use. It was somewhere along there every day I was there, though it moved its day perch to a leafy tree just down the boardwalk where it was much harder to see. Here you see it doing what it does best…blending into its environment well enough to be all but invisible, while it keeps a sleep watch on what is happening around it. This is a small owl: as small as 6 inches or as large as 10, and weighing between 4 and 9 ounces. Not much bigger, really, than a robin…just rounder. OM System OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 1600mm equivalent (using the built in digital teleconverter). Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f7.1 @ 1/1000th. Minus .7EV.
Spotted Owlet
Spotted Owlet: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — As I mentioned when I posted my first Spotted Owlet image from Saltanpur, we saw a lot of Spotted Owlets on our trip! For an Owl, a surprising number. Their diurnal habits make them more likely, but that just have to be a lot of them in Rajasthan. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Spotted Owlet
Spotted Owlet: Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — I was surprised to find this little Spotted Owlet sitting right out in plain sight a few yards in from the busy trail at Saltanpur, but the Spotted Owlet was to become one of the constant themes of the trip. We found them just about everywhere in Rajasthan we had a chance to look for them. This one was near a nest box provided for its convenience, but as cavity nesters they are common wherever there are mature trees. And their diurnal habits and apparent lack of any fear of man at all make them easy to see. In hindsight, we probably could have seen a lot more of them, if we had taken the time to look. It got so it was “just another Spotted Owlet”…and that should not be, as it is certainly an engaging little bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
The Best Christmas Gift! Barred Owl
Barred Owl: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, December 2022 — We were on our way back from Christmas dinner with my wife’s local immediate family, with sun already setting here in the short days of December, and we were talking about looking for Snowy Owls and Eagles behind the Catholic Church which sits out half way across the marshes in Wells, when, there on a wire above the road, was what certainly could have been a Snowy Owl. It was silhouetted against the open sky and I was past it before I could stop. We backed the car up and I parked half off the road and fumbled my camera out and got it set for multi-frame noise reduction, which I knew I would need in the low light, and climbed out of the car. In the camera viewfinder, at 600mm equivalent, it was a Barred Owl, not a Snowy, but still. Like most Owls, it knew I was there, but was not terribly concerned, as I worked around and down the opposite edge of the road to get bit closer. Such a gift! Terrible light and all, but I spent 5 minutes photographing it…so intent I forgot to breathe as much as I should have. When I got home it was a processing challenge to make the most of the low light, back-lit exposures, but still…such a gift for Christmas Day 2022. My wife emailed her sister, and it turns out the owl is a well known local character, and often hunts that stretch of road in twilight, waiting for car headlights to highlight an unwary rodent…as owls do. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 2000 @ f4. 1/500th. Plus 1.7EV.
Mottled Owl
Mottled Owl: Hotel Bougainvillea, San Jose, Costa Rica, December 2022 — I posed a photo of this owl taken my first afternoon in Costa Rica. This is the next morning in better light. 🙂 I have seen several owls, over the years in this same stand of bamboo on the hotel grounds. Sony Rx10 iv at 561mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Macbook Air. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Welcome to Costa Rica bird: Mottled Owl
Mottled Owl, Hotel Bougainvillea, San Jose, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Terrible light, just before it started to rain, deep in a grove of huge bamboo…but still, not a bad start to our Costa Rican adventure! Sony Rx10iv at 517mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction for the low light. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Black and White Owl
Black and White Owl: Gamboa, Panama, July 2022 — This is a companion shot to the one I shared on International Owl Awareness Day a few days ago. Wikipedia says the Back and White Owl is “not afraid of living near human habitations” and my experience of them certainly bears that out…the only one’s I have ever seen were in a city park in Honduras, and this one in a semi-abandoned housing development on the old base at Gamboa, Panama. In this shot the bird seems to be “looking down it’s nose” (or beak as it may be) at me. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Nominal exposure: ISO 1600 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV exposure compensation.