Shot this a couple days ago. I posted some shots of owls with their owlettes several months back and now the owls have returned with another generation. There are actually 2 different families of barred owls with owlettes in the same area. This one only has one owlette while the other family has two. They seem to be sticking to their own territories for now, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes.
On this morning, the owlette had stayed concealed in back in the forest for about 1.5 hours while the adult hunted for crawfish on the other side of the road. The adult would catch a crawfish then fly it to the tree where the owlette was hiding. I just sat in my car and watched while looking at the owlette through my binoculars and lens every now and then. After delivering the food, the adult would fly back to its hunting perches awaiting the next crawfish to pop-up. The side of the road where the adult was hunting was shaded, so I had about a half-second opportunity to try to get flight shots of the adult in morning light as it flew back to its hunting perches (I had a couple chances, but the pics. were just barely soft). I positioned myself hoping the adult would land on this branch before flying all the way back across. In a serendipitous moment, the owlette suddenly flew to this branch and called aggressively for more food. I turned to watch the hunter just in time to see him catch another crawfish, so I immediately began praying to the photo gods for the owlette to stay put while the adult came to feed it. As you can see, everything worked out, the only problem is the crawfish is small and dark, making it hard to see--oh well, can't win 'em all. I was pretty excited because last year, the owls never ate in front of me, but the owlettes don't seem to have that issue this year.
Techs:
D3s
500mm
f/8
1/2500
ISO 1600
All C&C welcome. The legs look hot on here, but in the RAW, they're just under 250. Only adjustments were cropping for comp., and I cloned out a small twig coming off the perch.
Fantastic that your patience well and truly paid off bigstyle Kyle. Great interaction between the two off them. I would have loved them to be leaning more towards us, but, I think what you got was more than enough. Very nice details on both birds, overall a great capture. Well done
Probably not much you could have done about the steep angle, but you caught some cool behaviour, which I am not familiar with at all. Well, not familiar with these birds at all, but judging by what the fellas said, it is a great behavioural action shot.
Breakfast Handoff
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