Burrowing Owl at Cape Coral Library

[Bob Pelkey]

Canon EOS-1D Mark III ,Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM
1/1000s f/5.6 at 840.0mm iso160

Full EXIF Info
Date/Time	26-Feb-2010 16:46:04
Make	Canon
Model	Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	840 mm
Exposure Time	1/1000 sec
Aperture	f/5.6
ISO Equivalent	160
Exposure Bias	-1/3
White Balance
Metering Mode	matrix (5)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program	shutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

Tripod, cropped, brightening, and sharpening.

In my nearly two and a half hours watching the nest, it was nearly impossible to find a clean angle of the birds at the elevation I preferred to shoot at. Although the eyebrows seen here seem to indicate a Western Burrowing Owl, this is indeed the Florida sub-species. Please consider reading about my first sighting of the Burrowing Owl here . . . http://swfloridabirder.blogspot.com/...owing-owl.html

[Mike Tracy]

I like the glancing out of the frame but in doing so you should place the bird more to the right. The oof twig that crosses his face is kind of a bummer. The grasshopper is a bonus but wish you had more dof so he was more in focus.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bob Mighty fine capture !!!

Not sure what you could do about the dof here except af point placement, even stopping down will not have both in focus. All I would have done is focus one like you did (first choice for me) and one on the meal for comparison !! Great timing !!!! ... thanks for the link !!!

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Cool capture and I like your choice of cropping. The grasshopper is a real bonus.

[Bob Pelkey]

I like the glancing out of the frame but in doing so you should place the bird more to the right. The oof twig that crosses his face is kind of a bummer. The grasshopper is a bonus but wish you had more dof so he was more in focus.

I regret that my frame is as far left as I can go. I had to react extremely quickly to get the shot I did. I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten the bird with prey in the remaining daylight. I was speaking with someone familiar with Burrowing Owls today who told me that the species can be extremely aggressive toward humans and may attack the eyes if it feels threatened. The catch and consumption of the grasshopper happened in an instant. I'll be sure to fire at f/8 in the future.