Photography, Wildlife

Another Hoot!

Image 19 Comments

The little lady was out and about today.  A raptor center employee informed me that the owl I have watched these last few days was female and weighed about 3 lbs.  She has been in the area for about 3 weeks.  There is no telling how long she will stay.  It was bitter cold in the wind this afternoon.  Little lady wasn’t loving it either as she hunkered down out of the wind behind some irrigation equipment parts.  It appeared as though she was hunting among the corn stock debris in the field.

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I was shocked to learn that 70% of these birds that were pushed out of their normal range will likely not survive the trip back North.  It may be tinkering with nature, but I don’t think it is all bad to supplement her normal diet some with a few juicy white mice.  The raptor expert agreed and ventured to guess that is will help her odds of surviving some.  This little white-feathered-mouse-killing machine is growing on me some.

Here are a few more shots from this afternoon’s encounter.  All taken with my trusty Nikon D60 and Tamron 70-300mm f/4-f/5.6.  Nothing fancy folks.  There were other boys and girls there with their big bazooka lenses.  They were nice and shiny, but heavy and held alongside the road.  There is something to be said for light and mobile and the ability to move quickly.

19 thoughts on “Another Hoot!”

    1. Thank you. Hopefully it is far from over. I am going back tomorrow again; can’t wait.

  6. You’ve got some wonderful photo’s here…I can tell that little white creature is capturing you 🙂

  10. She is a beautiful lady at that! Wow, that is a huge percentage that won’t make it back…almost unbelievable and incredibly sad!

  11. Wish I had the opportunity to photograph such a beautiful bird. I agree with you about keeping our equipment light and mobile. I’ve been using a D90 with the older Tamron 18-270 for several years now. It’s been a fabulous lens.

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