Barred Owl

Barred Owl, originally uploaded by the patter.

I'm lucky I even got this shot. But I did back the car up to check out the strange shape at the top of the small tree. When I realized it was an owl, I backed the car even further, just out of sight of the owl. I grabbed my gear (I had a 135mm manual telephoto on the camera at the time), added a 2x teleconverter, and walked back to where the owl was.

I managed to grab several frames before it flew off. The morning light was still fairly dim, so the shot is not as sharp as I would have liked. Sometimes you take what you can get and feel blessed to have been a witness at all!

I've seen the owl on that same tree a couple times since, but have not had any luck improving on this shot. But I will keep trying...