Short-Eared Owls and Wet Feet

 Yesterday afternoon I found myself in the southern end of the NH coastline.  With rates as low as this it seemed to be a good choice to refinance my house, so this would be the second closing inside of a year. Booooring.

All said and done at 3:50 I decided to head to a secluded spot not far away in Rowley, Mass. This area looks out over Plum Island Sound and is a known hunting spot for the Short-Eared Owl. This would be my 4th visit to this wet and windy area hoping to catch a glimpse of this bird that would be considered a lifer for me.

As luck would have it, the road leading from the car to a good observation point was flooded with brackish, sulfur smelling water. There I stood, with my only nice shoes, button down shirt,  camera in hand, perfect setting sun, staring across the water to where I needed to be.

 It seemed clear I had but one choice. Immediately I rolled up my pants and took off my shoes and socks and began wading across the freezing water to the other side, about 40 yards. Once on the other side, I dried my feet quickly in the dried sea grass, slipped my shoes back on and trudged onward.

Within 30 feet of getting my shoes back on an owl rose out of the grass 50 yards in front of me in perfect light. Then another, for about 10 minutes I watched as 2 owls seemed to taunt each other and hunt over the marsh. Just seeing these amazing birds for the first time was like a dream. The moment made me forget about my freezing, wet feet and the fact that the wind had picked up and I realized I should have probably put a jacket on some time ago. Looking back at my truck a half a mile away I stuck it out til sun set.

 

 The water gauntlet with no way around.

Like clockwork, as soon as the sun set, the moon rose in the east 180 degrees to the east.

Snowy Owl Success, part 2!

Check out Many more photos of this owl here. Vote on your favorite!

I took a trip along the Massachusetts/New Hampshire coast yesterday sporting a rental 500mm f4 with a 1.4 teleconverter from borrowlenses.com giving an effective focal length of 700mm. With all my owl sightings recently off the beaten path I needed to prepare differently this time. All the bulk and weight of a camera setup like this makes it more difficult to access these far reaching areas. Especially the fact that I needed to carry a heavy tripod as well. With a few special coat hanger and duct tape modifications I was able to carry the whole camera and lens vertically in my back country snowboarding bag making it very easy to hike the miles that I planned.

Fortunate for me I didn't have to hike nearly as far as I thought I would. Within 20 minutes of leaving my truck at lot 7 on Plum Island I located a single, beautiful peppered Snowy Owl. This owl was very patient seemingly sleepy as the wind gusted up to 30 mph. To get a sense of how strong the wind was check out this video capture.

On my way back up the coast I swung by Rye Harbor and watched some Buffleheads, Horned Grebes, and Long-tailed ducks feed in the shallows.

More owl photos here.
-Bill

If at first you don't succeed.... ( Snowy Owl)

For more images visit my updated Snowy Owl gallery.

 As they say,  if at first you don't succeed, try, and try again. Over the past 3 years I have spent hundreds of hours and driven hundreds of miles in search of the elusive Snowy Owl.

With an extreme fluctuation in the population of migrating birds from the Arctic, some years us New Englanders may never see a Snowy at all like in the winter of 2010. Hunger and changing abundance of prey can drive these typically far northern birds deep into the lower 48. The winter of 2011-2012 seems to be a banner year with birds reported almost every day along the coast from Connecticut-Maine.

This past weekend I headed to plum island in search of this elusive owl. I headed out before sunrise to arrive just as the sun was coming up at Plum Island, just east of Newburyport , MA. I had a plan and I was sticking to it. I won't get int to many details as I would like to try this again, next weekend, but it worked. This large adult owl was very patient and relaxed. I was able to sit on the sand and watch the owl several times as it ate a seagull, hunted the dunes, and roosted along the sea. I drove home buzzing with the excitement of finally getting photos I could " see the pupil of the eye". That is how I often measure my photos, by the crispness of the pupil of the eye. This may seem excessive, but I have learned when the pupil is clear and sharp at 100% the rest of the image with be epic!
-Bill

For more Snowy Owl Images please visit my website.

Sandhill Cranes pay a visit to Massachusetts!

I spent nearly the entire day Sunday exploring the Massachusetts seacoast looking for birds and other wildlife. The trip didn't let me down! Based on some reports from the Mass Bird List  I decided to head to Rowely first to see if I could locate the Sandhill Cranes that have been reported several times last week.

Just to note, Sandhill Cranes are very rare for this area but very abundant our in our Western states.  Sunday marked the first time I have ever seen this species in person. In the birding world there is a term for this. The very first time you identify a species, this is called a "lifer". I like to make it even more certain that for me a "lifer" includes a photos to document the sighing. Many times I will think I saw one type of bird but it was actually another, as in this past Sunday I was certain that I was photographing a Northern Harrier, only to find out it was a Rough-Legged Hawk, another Lifer for me!

There were 2 Cranes in the farm field when I arrived. They were close to the road so it was pretty easy to get some nice shots without disturbing the birds. From what I can tell, they will stick around a few more days and then continue to migrate.

When birds as rare as these show up it can cause quite a stir in the nature photography world. Want to see what nearly $100,000 in camera gear looks like? You would think Paris Hilton was out there in that muddy field somewhere.

This is what the crane thought of all the attention. I'm pretty sure he felt this was his best side. Notice how he is checking to see if people are watching!