Barred Owl Close Encounter

It's been REALLY cold here in Ohio this winter. So much so that I haven't gone out shooting much for the past month. Now that's COLD!

In true Ohio fashion, the temperatures recently jumped from the teens and twenties up into the forties and fifties. Naturally I could not pass that up, so Wednesday I hit the trail on my lunch hour looking for something to shoot.

How I Got the Shot:

It was turning out to be more of a walk than a photo-hike, until about 20 minutes into the hike. Don't ask me how, but I noticed a small shape in a tree that didn't fit. Looking closer, I realized it was an owl.

Now, I rarely find owls in the woods, so I grabbed a couple of frames from the trail. Even with the 300mm lens, it only occupied a small portion of the image. I wanted to get closer of course, but figured I'd better take what I could get. Owls usually don't hang around for a photo op...

The tree was in a ravine. I approached slowly, but far from noiselessly in the dead leaves. I continued to grab frames as I approached, always expecting my next shot to be the last. Finally, I was on the edge of the bank, only 40 or 50 feet away, pretty much on the same level as the owl. It was snoozing (this was around 12:30 in the afternoon), and would only open his eyes occasionally when I made noise. I was really surprised, I've never managed to get so close before!

Though I took a hundred or more frames, I basically only got two poses out of him! Well, it was his nap time and I certainly won't complain about these images. They are by far the closest, clearest images I've taken of a wild owl.


See more of my nature photography at Patter Photography.

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...