Posts in Category: owl
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.
Spectacled Owl chick
Spectacled Owl: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula Costa Rica — I shared one photo of this immature Spectacled Owl, just coming into adult plumage, when we first saw it in December, but it deserves more attention. Edwin, our guide to all things Costa Rican, managed to spot it deep back in the dense rainforest, well off the trail. Finding a line of sight was not easy, but it is such a good bird. Spectacled Owls roost out in daylight, and are among the most likely owls to see in Costa Rica, but still, a great find on Edwin’s part. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 and 5000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Spectacled Owl with Cope
Spectacled Owl: Gaupiles, Costa Rica — Every year when we visit, Cope has known where at least one Owl is roosting during the day. In fact, it was owls that first took us to Cope’s. I asked my guide, on my very first trip to Costa Rica, if we could see an owl on one of our afternoons with no scheduled activity…and he said, “Well I know this guy…” We have been going to Cope’s every trip since. The Spectacled Owl has been faithful each year. Some years we get better views. Some years we see two owls together. Some years we see a chick. And twice we have also seen Great Crested Owl in the same area. But always owls! Cope is very careful not to disturb the owls and we always remain at a respectful distance and don’t sometimes, have the clearest line of sight in the dense second growth area where they roost. But we always see them. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/80th (way dark in the forest!)
Tropical Screech Owl
Tropical Screech Owl: Hotel Bougainvillea, San Jose, Costa Rica — On most trips to Costa Rica, we have to make a special effort to see an owl. When we stay at the Bougainvillea, there is a Costa Rican Pygmy Owl that has been seen near the back of the gardens, and we always look, but I have yet to see it. And later in the trip, we visit Cope in Galupiles, and he generally has at least one owl staked out. This year we walked up on two owls unexpectedly. This Tropical Screech Owl was hanging out with its mate in a dense grove of Bamboo in the Bougainvillea gardens on most of our folks first morning in Costa Rica, on what turned out to be a very rainy day. The female was so far back-in that photography was next to impossible, and I don’t have any sharp shots of her…but the male was close enough to the edge of the grove so I could find a line-of-sight for a few photos…using my low-light mode and multi-frame noise reduction. (The second unexpected owl was a Spectacled Owl we came up on on the grounds of Danta Corcovado on the Osa Peninsula. We would not have seen either one if not for the incredibly sharp eyes and extraordinary awareness of our guide Edwin 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/60th.
My first Snowy of 2021
Snowy Owl: Biddeford Pool, Maine, USA — I went out yesterday to do a poke around for Snowy Owls. There have been several in York County this past week (and at least one close encounter to go by the pics posted on Facebook). I did not have a close encounter, far from it, but I did manage to find one Snowy Owl, after several hours of visiting likely spots from past years and places they have been reported this year on eBird. This one was right at the narrows at Biddeford Pool…I was parked in the town parking by the market, but it was all the way across the channel on the other bank…barely a speck to the naked eye…and not clearly identifiable as a Snowy Owl. Could have been an upright white rock. I had to watch it for a while through the viewfinder at 1200mm on the Sony Rx10iv before it moved and I was certain it was an owl. Even then it only rotated its head. Not ideal for photography. This shot is at 1200mm equivalent using Clear Image digital zoom on the Sony, and then I enlarged it in Pixomator Photo Pro and cropped so it is at least the equivalent of a 3000mm lens. To make matters more difficult, it is a Snowy Owl…a difficult subject for exposure at any time. In the bright November sun, I had to dial the Exposure Compensation down to -1.3 EV to hold any detail in the white feathers. I tried even -2 EV but it still did not keep the highlights in check. The best I can say of this photo is that it is definitely a Snowy Owl. 🙂 It does give me hope for at least one close encounter this winter. We shall see. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent optical zoom plus 2x Clear Image zoom. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. -1.3 EV. Processed in Polarr, Pixelmator Pro, and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th.