Willam Kramer Studio - Blog

Monday, March 07, 2011

Barred Owl in Rain

 
On a rainy hike yesterday morning deep in a pine forest of Hollis, NH I startled a Barred Owl who was very low on a branch perfectly camouflaged. He flew a very short distance and landed on another branch a little higher up. Although I have seen barred owls several times in this area over the past year, I still consider them to be my ultimate find. Cameraless,  I watched it for 10 minutes and marked it on my GPS.

Then I tried to determine how long it would take me to get back to my truck. My thought was, based on an experience I had last summer, Barred owls tend to stay put for long periods of time during the day. So maybe, just maybe I could hike back to my truck, drive a few miles home, get my camera, drive back, hike back to the spot with help from my GPS and get a great opportunity to photograph such an amazing animal.  It worked! Forty minutes later...I relocated the owl and photographed it for about 45 more minute from 20 feet away! 
checking out a small noise below

 Got to be careful how you itch your ear when you have claws like that!
 
 I was relieved and out of breath after putting in that kind of effort to get shots like these.

 
I even had a chance to try some HDR techniques 

Thanks for stopping by, come back soon to check out some shots of the peregrine falcons I have been watching.
-Bill

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow Bill, These pictures are so amazing! Hope all is well. -heather

Ryan Ankeny said...

I've been wanting to try some HDR on birds for a while now but have never been able to get them to sit still long enough. Looks like you found the perfect subject.