It's good to floss...

[Steve Kaluski]

Meet No.2 owlet, this one took sometime to show him/herself and always was the last in the pecking order, as No.1 owlet was clearly packing on the pounds!!!

Since posting one of the adults, a few of you know of the trials & tribulations one of the adults went through and gave cause for concern for the two new arrivals, but certainly the one remaining adult did a good job. All have now disappeared as they do. This one was just taking time out between meals to ensure the bill was razor sharp. The BKG is Scot's Pine.

Thanks to those who posted or viewed the previous thread.

Steve

Subject: Little owl owlet (Athene noctua)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon 1DX MKII
Lens: 500f/4 MKII Wimberley Gimbal MKII & Gitzo tripod
Exposure: 1/1600s at f/5 ISO6400 - (Mistake on the DoF, as I would have kept it at f/8 and not worried about the ISO, but must have caught the dial when shooting)
Original format: Portrait, slight crop from top, almost FF width
Processed via: LRCC & PSCC2017

Taken at 17:31:24 pm

Note: The subject is fully wild and completely unconstrained. Besides the potential impact of my presence, nothing has been done to intentionally alter or affect the ongoing behavior of the subject and, of course, there has been no use of any form of bait or other form of wildlife attractants (including vocalisations) in the capture of this image.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Brought a smile to my face, nice work Steve. I might crop out more of the stump, probably about a third of what is showing. I think the owl and what it is doing is shown better. Thank you for sharing.

[Steve Kaluski]

I might crop out more of the stump, probably about a third of what is showing.

Yep, will take a look Joe, thanks.

[Gabriela Plesea]

This is awesome Steve, I adore those little guys so thank you so much for sharing!

Love the grooming pose and the comp works for me, natural colours, beautiful detail. Looking at the perch helps me realise how tiny the subject is. Perfect techs and super BG.

This is delightful....I would love to have an illustrated coffee table book with stories about this Owl family.

Hope you have a great evening,

...do I have to tell you how much I enjoyed this, I guess you already know

Warmest regards,

[John Mack]

Love the title of this. Good composition with a nice background.

[Glenn Pure]

Steve, a wonderful moment captured here with great timing and finesse. Your brilliance at post-processing shows through here in the result. Really beautifully done. I found myself trying to look harder at what the owlet was doing so my personal preference would have been for a tighter crop, possibly even going landscape as I think the IQ would hold up... but I have a natural bias to landscape crops that I can't explain so take that part with a grain of salt.

[Jonathan Ashton]

A fine shot Steve love the behaviour capture. When I saw the background I wondered what it was but I read the caption so now I understand!
I cannot say a great deal more because I am awaiting new glasses and I am struggling a bit with the current ones, I do however note the wonderful detail and a very clean background.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks folks, light was flat and overcast, so no real 'richness' to the depth of colours.

Sadly one adult kept falling down a chimney close by, it might have been the one I have no longer seen, who knows, so for a couple of days I did dig a patch to help bolster the food intake and this will be duly noted when posting.

[Alex Becker]

Nice one Steve -- great detail throughout and a clean BG. I agree with Joseph that shifting the crop up to have more above and less perch could help. Love the owl picking the beak -- very cute. Look forward to more of these guys. TFS

[William Dickson]

Pretty cool Steve. Love the pose. Fantastic processing as usual. Wished we got these little owls up here. They look so cute.

Very nice.

Will