Category: owls

Short-Eared Owls Out and About

After stopping by after work yesterday and not seeing any owls, there was already short-eared owls out and about when I arrived in the parking lot at around 5 p.m. today. Evidently they were out around 4:00 or prior to that busily hunting .

Short-Eared Owls out and About – First pictures in tree

I could see the owl in the tree from the parking lot, but I like moving along. The owl stayed in the tree for a while.

Short-Eared Owls Out and About

Right after I started walking up the trail I saw one owl very close to the trail. Unfortunately I was not prepared and had my camera set around 1/500 or a second. The above photo has blurred wings but otherwise not too bad.

Short-Eared Owls Out and About

The above was also taken at 1/500 of a second.

Short-Eared Owls Out and About

It was getting too dark shortly after this photo above. There are two other kinds of owls at this location. A great horned owl had a lot to say tonight. We can’t get close to them at this location.

I believe at one point there were 4 short eared owls flying around in this one area of the trail. There were only 3-4 people photographing in this area. After yesterday I was thinking they may have left for Canada, but they are still here. This made my day. Have a great weekend!

Short-Eared Owl Night Flight

I stopped in this location after work to see if I could catch some action. It was not too windy, although there was some clouds in the sky and not the greatest light. We did see them fly closer to us where we are allowed to stand.

Short-Eared Owl Night Flight

The above photo is lightened a bit. It is hard to capture them when they come out. The grass is tall as this location, taller than me actually, and did not have a deep enough snowfall to force it down. Therefore, the grass interferes with focus. Not bad though for a dark evening. Have a great weekend.

More Short-Eared Owls on a Post

I took these after 5 tonight. It was cloudy and started raining after I left, so it was dark. The first one is short eared-owl on a post that is cropped a lot.

More short-eared owls on a post- cropped a lot
More Short-eared owls on a post- not cropped a lot

This second picture was lightened a lot, but not cropped as much as the first picture. It landed on a post very close to where we could stand. This is the first year I have seen the short-eared owls land on posts.

Although the lighting is bad, I still enjoyed seeing them closer than I ever have before. I just wish they would come that close with better lighting conditions.

Short-Eared Owl on a Post

I decided to swing by the land I see these owls on before dark. It rained part of the day, but continued to look dark and dreary. The last two nights the owls only flew on the other end of the field. Tonight they flew closer. I was able to see them in flight, on a tree, and see one of the short-eared owls on a post.

Short-Eared Owl on a Post

The flight shots were grainy due to high ISO, but you cannot have everything.

Short-Eared Owl on a Post

I may try to go on the weekend, but luck has not been on my side on Saturdays or Sundays. The increase in the number of owl paparazzi on weekends keeps them at bay. Have a great weekend!

Short-Eared Owl Fly By

I went for a couple of hours to watch the short-eared owls again. This time from the viewing platform, which I usually stay away from. I was lucky they flew nearby, but not too close a few times.

Short-Eared Owl Fly By

They seemed to have come out earlier today than yesterday. It was before sunset started.

Short-Eared Owl Fly By

All pictures were taken with a zoom lens and are heavily cropped.

Short-Eared Owl Fly By -This one is checking us out.

Tonight they spent a lot of time flying to the trees on the edge of the property, which are beyond the trails. It looked like there may have between 8-11. I wonder if it is a gathering before they head back up to northern Canada or the Arctic.

Short-Eared Owl Fly By – Checking us out again

I am guessing they are just as curious at times about us as they do look in our direction. What do you think?

Short-Eared Owls on the Hunt

What do you do on a day off? Besides running some errands I also went to see how close the short-eared owls would come today.

Short-eared Owl on the hunt – fly by
Short-eared owls on the hunt
Short-Eared Owls on the hunt. – This one flew over a trail you allowed on.
Short-Eared Owl on the hunt

It helped that is was a sunny day and not too windy. They came out at around sunset, so we all had a little bit of time to photography them. They were closer than I had seen them from early December through the beginning of February on Sundays, but not too close. These are all taken with a zoom lens and are heavily cropped. Squeeze in some time with nature and wildlife on your days off. Have a great week!

Short-Eared Owl at Night

I usually can only go on Sunday afternoons. Up until now this winter I have not seen short-eared owls, except at quite a distance. Tonight I saw them closer, but still not very close after sunset.

Short-Eared Owl at Night

Weekends are not a good time to go. I have been going on Sundays since early December with little luck. It is crowded and people tend to be loud on the weekends, hence the owls stay far beyond the distance to take a decent photo. Not a good recipe for chances to see them up close. This was just after sunset. Here’s hoping I have better luck in the future.

Great Horned Owlet Near Nest

I went to a place to walk I have not been before. It was my second hiking location of the day and it was less than two hours to sunset. I was happy to see an owl flying in a field heading towards a woods. I followed it. I did not find the parent, but I found one owlet in a nest and one in a branch of the same tree. I could only get the one in the branch from very far away and with the wind it was hard to get a sharp shot.

Great Horned Owlet staring at me. Most of the time it was following its parent with its head and eyes.

I saw these from a distance. This are greatly cropped. A parent from flying tree to ground to tree nearby hunting. I am pretty sure this is the one in the nest.

It was very windy, but it was still great to catch these even from a distance. I could even faintly hear the owlets screech for food. This made my day! Take joy in the little things in life. Have a great week!

Owl Door Dash

I started hearing mayhem amongst the birds in the woods. Crows, a blue jay, some other bird with an annoying call were complaining loudly. I went towards the sound and thought maybe the owl or a hawk caught a bird. The following pictures were taken right before sunset in the woods.

I saw what I believe is the female owl sitting patiently looking up in the trees in the direction of the sound. It turns out the male owl had caught an animal. The birds slowly one by one flew away complaining. After things had quieted down I saw what looked like the other owl fly to a tree and make a short who sound.

The father owl then flew to a neighbouring tree. The mother owl flew over to the tree he had gone to first. The father had left an animal for the mom to eat. How nice of him! I could not tell what it was at first.

I love the heart shapes in her lower feathers by her tail.

The mother owl was nice enough to take the animal and fly off to a neighbouring tree branch where I could get a better view. It appears to be a chipmunk. We are seeing more chipmunks and squirrels now, but not nearly as much as in past years it seems. Many people in this area are commenting the same.

The mother owl spent a lot of time trying to swallow this, give up, then appear to try to rip it or bite pieces, then repeat.

When she was done she flew to another nearby tree and perched for a while. I always feel lucky to see this pair. They have not been together much this year so far. I hope I did not gross you out too much. Enjoy the end of your week!

After the Rain

What may be a good time to find owls? It appears after a rainstorm at night. It seemed to rain much of the night here. They may have needed time during the day to hunt.

I found this one first. You cannot use the usually bluejays being ticked or chipmunks making noise to find them this year. There are a lack of those around as well as squirrels, which are all part of their diet. More hawks around I think is greatly culling the animal population.

This one’s mate was at a neighbouring tree not too far away. The mate is more stealth. If I cannot find him right away I give up and let him show himself to me on his terms.

This one was taken into the late afternoon sunlight.

After resting for a while, they started following each other around. One landed on a branch. When they other one tried to land on the same branch , the branch broke off and fell to the ground sending the owls in quick flight. The one owl was not putting up with having the other on the next branch it landed on. It forced them off.

Later afternoon sunlight. Some dark clouds were coming , so I left.

So they ended up on the same tree. but different areas of it. I think they were wondering if they would see a sunset or another rainstorm. It ended up being another rainstorm.