Owls (Wild Only)
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Great to see this moment of intimacy.
Edmonton river valley.
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
Der Bartkauz ist eine Vogelart aus der Gattung Strix innerhalb der Familie der Eigentlichen Eulen. Er kommt in zwei Unterarten in der borealen Zone der Holarktis vor. Sein deutscher Name leitet sich von einer schwarzen Gefiederregion unter dem Schnabel ab, die wie ein kleiner Bart aussieht.
Two more looks at this beautiful Owl. I have learned a few things about this individual and his travels since my last post and I will put together a photo story about his journey to here and his contact with humans.
In my experience, some Great Grays are very skittish, and some, like this one, not so much.
This one let us pull up beside it and take several shots from the car. A great way to start the season.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
I really wasn't planning to post another Great Gray Owl image this evening, but I got this hunting sequence today. I have never captured this action before.
The Owl plunged into the snow from a fence post perch, buried its head, grabbed the Vole and took it back to its perch to eat it.
During this sequence, it paused a few times to look up and around while in the snow. They must feel vulnerable at that moment. I watched him catch 5 Voles over an hour. Sometimes the vole was consumed in the snow, and other times it was eaten on the perch.
My shutter speed was a little slow for a flight shot, There was no time to change settings when this one launched from its perch.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
I was photographing this one from the car while it was perched on a fence post at the edge of the road. Something got its attention and it suddenly launched. I am surprised that the shot turned out this well given that my camera settings were dialed for a static shot. I was very close though.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
After an unsuccessful plunge. About ten minutes later, it did catch a Vole amid grasses, so I could not get that shot.
Elk Island National Park, Alberta.
Da vedere in Alta Risoluzione - To see in High Resolution
www.flickr.com/photos/155221830@N02/49556099677/sizes/o/
Da dentro l'auto con bean bag, torcia e flash. Abruzzo - Italia
Tawny Owl. From inside the car with bean bag, flashlight and flash. Abruzzo - Italy
Da vedere in Alta Risoluzione - To see in High Resolution
www.flickr.com/photos/155221830@N02/49828263863/sizes/o/
Da dentro l'auto con bean bag, torcia e flash. Abruzzo - Italia
Tawny Owl. From inside the car with bean bag, flashlight and flash. Abruzzo - Italy
Nice to catch up with an old friend last week. The youngsters have left the nest, but he is still providing them snacks
Another shot from a great encounter with this Owl from a couple of weeks ago. Always a wonderful experience.
The same Barred Owl I posted two days ago, but in much better light. No squirrel this time though.
Edmonton, Alberta.
A delicate landing.
Great Gray Owls are the largest Owl in North America in terms of body length which is 27 inches. That is 4 inches longer than the Snowy Owl, and 5 inches longer than a Great Horned Owl.
Compared to those two large Owls though, it is a lightweight.
The Great Gray weighs 2.8 lbs, The Snowy Owl weighs 5.3 lbs, and the Great Horned Owl weighs 4.1 lbs. (Sibley)
The cool thing about Great Gray Owls is that while hunting, they will sometimes fly closer to your position and ignore you while they check out the possibilities for finding voles under the snow. They have an incredible ability to detect the low and high frequency sounds made by foraging voles even under two feet of snow which they can first detect from a distance of over 100 metres.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
Brown in colouration, with a rounded head and dark forward-facing eyes, the Tawny Owl is typically owl-like in its appearance. Three different colour forms occur across the European breeding range, with the chestnut brown form most commonly encountered within the UK. The facial disk is rather plain in colour and pattern and within this sit the dark eyes and horn-coloured bill.
The upperparts are rich chestnut brown, with areas of both lighter and darker tones that help to camouflage the bird when perched within its favoured woodland habitat. Males and females are similar in appearance but differ in size, though with a degree of overlap; females are the larger of the two sexes (Courtesy BTO).
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The great grey owl (Strix nebulosa) is found throughout Northern Europe, Northern Asia and a significant proportion of North America. They are quite large birds, rivalling the Eurasian Eagle Owl in size. The great grey owl has a large, rounded head and yellow eyes, with light underparts mottled with darker grey feathers. Their wings and back are darker grey with lighter bars.
The great grey owl has a large "facial disk." The facial disk is a concave circle of feathers around the eyes of the bird. It helps to collect sound waves and direct them toward the owl's ears, helping the owl to locate its prey by sound. The great grey owl has the largest facial disk of any bird of prey.
Their diet consists mainly of small mammals and their preferred prey is voles, however they will also eat gophers, weasels, squirrels, rabbits, rats and mice. They nest in dense coniferous forests in most of the northern hemisphere.
The female will lay between two to six eggs at one- to two-day intervals. The female does all of the incubation, which starts when the first egg is laid. After four to six weeks the chicks hatch. The male provides all the food for the young, which is torn into smaller pieces by the female. When food is scarce the female great grey owl will often starve herself in order to feed her chicks, and may lose up to a third of her body weight. The chicks will leave the nest after approximately a month and can fly well after two months. The young stay close to home and are cared for by the female for some time after leaving the nest.
Another Great Gray Owl shot. It was a wonderful day. We found nine of them between 100 km and 120 km northeast of Edmonton.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
A "wishful thinking" shot of a Great Gray Owl I didn't post from a great session in January, 2011. I hope to see one this year.