Owls (Wild Only)
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Taken near Moorlinch in Somerset. :)
More pics in my new blog post here;
carlbovisnaturephotography.blogspot.com/2018/07/little-te...
Beautiful creatures and full of character . This one and it's mate were busy all afternoon providing for their chicks.
I am posting a real Snowy Owl today. Thanks for your kind comments on my male Snowy Owl carving posted just before this. Much appreciated.
Strathcona County, Alberta.
Nice to catch this one on top of a skinny perch.
Sturgeon County, Alberta.
Added to my Canada 150 Album.
The rich baritone hooting of the Barred Owl is a characteristic sound in southern swamps, where members of a pair often will call back and forth to each other. Although the bird is mostly active at night, it will also call and even hunt in the daytime. Only a little smaller than the Great Horned Owl, the Barred Owl is markedly less aggressive, and competition with its tough cousin may keep the Barred out of more open woods. One of the first things you will notice with the Barred Owl is that they appear to have no ears. They aren’t visible from the top of their head as they are with other species of owls. They are brownish in color as well as shades of gray.
The Barred Owl hunts by night or day, perhaps most at dawn and dusk. Seeks prey by watching from perch, also by flying low through forest; may hover before dropping to clutch prey in talons. The Barred Owl eats mostly, small mammals, rabbits, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. They are known to wade in water to catch crayfish.
The belly feathers of some Barred Owls are pink. This coloring may be the result of eating a lot of crayfish.
I found this one in the Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area in Osceola County, Florida.
This Barred Owl gave us a delightful experience during a visit to Brazos Bend State Park. We inadvertently flushed it from next to the water up into a low tree where he sat for quite some time while we took way too many photos.
Strix varia
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Another shot from a great encounter with this Owl from a couple of weeks ago. Always a wonderful experience.
The barred owl (Strix varia), or northern barred owl, is a true owl native to eastern North America. Adults are large, and are brown to grey with barring on the chest. Barred owls have expanded their range to the west coast of the United States, where they are considered invasive. Mature forests are their preferred habitat, but they are also found in open woodland areas. Their diet consists mainly of small mammals, but they are also known to prey upon other small animals such as reptiles and amphibians. This was taken at the CRC.
Another shot from a great opportunity yesterday.
For my contacts not familiar with this Owl species, I added the information below taken from Wikipedia.
The Northern hawk-owl (Surnia ulula) is a medium sized true owl of the northern latitudes. It is non-migratory and usually stays within its breeding range, though it sometimes irrupts southward. It is one of the few owls that is neither nocturnal nor crepuscular, being active only during the day.
The Northern hawk-owl has been said to resemble a hawk in appearance and in behavior. In North America, its appearance in flight is often considered similar to a Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperii). It has been suggested that this may be because the hawk- owl may partially fill an important diurnal niche similar to that of day hunters such as hawks.
(Wikipedia)
I was very excited that we had an opportunity to see and photograph this Striped Owl during our trip to Costa Rica this month. I think it is such a pretty bird. What I was particularly surprised by was that this bird was out on a rainy night. In my past experience I have found it quite rare to see owls of any kind out in the rain. If you look closely you can actually see some of the water droplets on the owl’s head in this photo.
We will be doing this trip again next spring, if you think you might be interested more information is available here: www.texastargetbirds.com/group-photo-trips/2018-costa-ric...
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Pseudoscops clamator
The great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), also known as the tiger owl or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas. Its primary diet appears to be rabbits and hares, rats and mice and voles, although it freely hunts any animal it can overtake, primarily other rodents and small mammals, but also larger mid-sized mammals, various birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates.
(Bubo scandiacus)
Another Lifer for me.
This is what greeted us when Kevin and I first got to our destination in search of this Magnificent Bird.
Island Beach State Park, Lanoka Harbor, NJ
Art - Layered and textured
Thanks to everyone that views and comments on my images - very much appreciated.
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A kind neighbor called me over to his home last evening, alerting me to this lovely owl that was peeking out of one of his backyard evergreen trees.
The owl allowed me to spend 15 minutes with it while I fired off many good captures. It never moved and showed no signs of agitation, and I kept a quiet and respectful distance across the yard.
This seems to be an adult brown morph (Northern). There are also grey and red morphs in this species.
Screech owls are very small and their body size range from 6 to 10 inches in length. Proportionally, their heads are quite large and, since they have such short necks, that head size seems even larger :)
The light was poor and quickly fading. Fortunately I had the house to lean against for a bit of stability as I handheld my heavy gear. I captured this image at 1/5 sec. shutter speed, though it took many attempts to pull this off :)
This experience was a real thrill for me since I have never photographed a wild owl in the 12 years that I have been doing nature photography.
Thank you, kind neighbor, for your thoughtful invite into your backyard for this fulfilling experience!
Enlarge for a more immersive view...
The tawny owl, also called the brown owl, is commonly found in woodlands across Europe to western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies. It is a stocky, medium-sized owl, whose underparts are pale with dark streaks, and whose upper body may be either brown or grey.Hooting woodland hunter with silent wings. Without a sound, the tawny owl descends from its lofty perch to snatch unsuspecting rodents from the forest floor below.