I spent much of the snowy and windy day photographing this Northern Pygmy-Owl as it worked on a Red-winged Blackbird that it had caught. I have a ton of images of this little bird looking very fierce, but was delighted and amazed when I got this image about mid-afternoon. The owl had been feeding on the blackbird on and off for about 4 hours, and obviously needed regular catnaps in between feeding sessions. Do owls catnap?
These little owls, about 7" beak to tail, regularly prey on birds significantly larger than they are. The Red-winged Blackbird runs about 8.5" beak to tail.
I cropped and tweaked the image slightly in LR2
Your C & C's much appreciated and most helpful.
Gail
Canon 50D with 100-400mm at 400mm plus 1.4X extender, f/8, 1/320 sec, pattern metering with 2/3EV, ISO 800
ps - I also apologize for not making as many comments on images of late. The forum seems to be adding new images at quite a clip, and I am afraid I'm falling behind for multiple reasons, happily including getting out to photograph, and reading about taking and processing images.
pps - how funny that Richard Stern's Pygmy-Owl image and mine were posted at the exact same time.
Last edited by Gail Spitler; 03-07-2009 at 08:08 PM.
Reason: additional comment
Gail, This is a fascinating image as is the information provided. I think it's a great story and what a great photo opportunity this must have been!! I might take a bit off the top and burn some of the FG snow just so it doesn't take your eye from this incredible capture!!! Well done!!!! Really Great!!!
Hi Gail - love the action - well done. Could just be my screen but looks just a tad flat to me - maybe a bit of a contrast boost.
When I first looked at this I couldn't quite woork it out - if you look at the tree (bg behind the bird) it sort of looks like a aerial view of the countryside below - though you had cpatured this guy on a cliff top or something - ahhhhhhhh dont worry I m just gettin old -- LOL
For a second too I had vertigo Gail. Great behavioural capture. Might add a bit of black to the neutrals. Do you have AF with the 50D and 1.4 tele???? or was this manual focus?
A very nice composition indeed Gail,
Love the story which is very informative...:) My suggestion would be to increase the saturation just a tad, not too much because it's looking a little on the flat side...congrats on the capture...well done...:cool:
Great story Gail and you must be a very patient person to have spent all that time. But it must have been well worth it. Great composition, would go with a tighter crop to focus more on the owl and it's meal.
Congrats,
Catnapping Owl
