Owl Season 2015

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Nice shot Janice. I am going to give a presentation on bird photography at this year's Puget Sound Bird Fest in Edmonds.
http://www.pugetsoundbirdfest.com/

I want to take a series of bird shots comparing ISO, aperature, and shutter settings in poor light. I think my local barred owl pair in Yost Park will make good models as they just perch and stare at me when I am photographing them under our typical low light conditions.
 
Great job with those long-eared owls, Rocky.

Here's a northern pygmy-owl I found today, along with 20 other photographers :)
20150125-2R6A1476_edit.jpg
 


photographmemories said:
Man, the owl thread is off to a great start this year! I'm really enjoying all of this.
Chad
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On the 5th page and it is still January.

Someone reported on Tweeters that they saw a great horned owlet at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. The great horned owls seem to be the earliest owls to have babies. Those of you from PDX might check on that pair at the Tualatin NWR.
 
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Thanks Chad. I'd say it was about 20-30 ft away in this photo, later in the afternoon he landed no more than 10 ft directly above me in a tree. Others heard him calling, but I didn't hear anything.
 
Bill Anderson said:
Nice shot Janice. I am going to give a presentation on bird photography at this year's Puget Sound Bird Fest in Edmonds.
http://www.pugetsoundbirdfest.com/

I want to take a series of bird shots comparing ISO, aperature, and shutter settings in poor light. I think my local barred owl pair in Yost Park will make good models as they just perch and stare at me when I am photographing them under our typical low light conditions.
Click to expand...

That should be a fun presentation to attend. I wish I wasn't so far south.
 


Someone reported on Tweeters that they saw a great horned owlet at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. The great horned owls seem to be the earliest owls to have babies. Those of you from PDX might check on that pair at the Tualatin NWR.
Click to expand...

Bill, Interesting to hear about the GHOwlet at Nisqually; hopefully there is a follow-up along with pictures. Let us know if you hear anything else.

Although there's been Great Horned owls present at TRNWR in recent years I am unaware of a nesting location at the Tualatin River refuge. There was supposedly a nest there that sat lower in a tree several years back but I am told that it was abandoned after harassment and vandalism had occurred. The story of "kids" running up an incline in which the tree sits on and doing the destruction is disturbing. I started going to the refuge a year or so after the incident and have never seen or heard of anything remotely close to that scale of wildlife harassment at the hands of humans at the refuge since.




Chad
 
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I haven't seen GHOs in the Tualatin Refuge for years and never learned where the nest was. Ridgefield had similar reports of owl harassment, but that tree blew down prior to last years nesting season. There are owls to be seen in Ridgefield, but I have no idea where the nest is. I haven't seen the GHOs in Tryon Creek for awhile either. I miss those guys.
 
Those Nisqually owlets do seem to arrive very early each year. I've missed them the last couple winters (and will likely miss them again, being gone all of February :( ).

Max
 
nice ones, Max! EXIF says 700mm on a 7D2; i'm assuming that's a 500 +1.4? how close were you able to get? are these cropped much? i'm thinking of heading down there on Saturday afternoon to see if i can find the little fella...
 


squirl033 said:
nice ones, Max! EXIF says 700mm on a 7D2; i'm assuming that's a 500 +1.4? how close were you able to get? are these cropped much?
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They weren't cropped all that much (the vertical may have been from a horizontal shot). A 2x converter was actually too much. You could probably walk right under the bird if you wanted to and it would pay you no heed. Because it was higher up, most of the photographers were set up maybe 15 yards away to get a better angle. There were a lot of branches in the way, so open sight lines were an issue. Everyone was respectful and at one point the owl flew into a low tree on the ground and nobody went after it. About 45 minutes later I spotted it on another high perch further back in the woods.

Might head back today for one last look. I'll be gone all of February, so this is my last chance for some good local owl viewing. ;)

Max
 
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