An amazing evening with some Long Eared Owls
It was a fair trek to get there and mix in a heat wave and Friday commuter traffic it was a relief to arrive and get walking to where the owls had been seen. There were some other photographers already there, and they were quite helpful and give us a loose direction of where they had seen some long-eared owlets.
Armed with my binoculars and Ollie’s thermal scope, we headed on to try and find them. I was very much like looking for a needle in a haystack, but we got lucky as they started calling (think creaky old gate), and we were able to hone in on them. I spotted them first, and with his scope, Ollie confirmed that. We then moved around to a better viewing angle – making sure we kept a good distance away, so we didn’t disturb them.
There were actually two owlets in the same tree, with one being slightly more out in the open, so I got a few quick shots, just to make sure I had something, and we then settled in to wait and see what they would do, and if either of the adults would pop in with some food for them.
Not long after we settled in, the one owlet in the open, moved off to the branch with its sibling and now both were quite obscured by the tree branches. Another photographer who was there found a bit of a hole though the trees where you could get a clear ish shot of the owl on the left, so we took it in turns to get some images.
After watching the owls for quite some time, with no sign of the adults coming in, we decided to head off on a bit of an explore, as some passers-by had seen an adult a bit further on.
It was nice to be able to stretch the legs a bit here, and we made our walk along one of the paths. Unfortunately for us though, we didn’t see any adults, and as it was now getting on for 8pm, we headed back to see if the owlets were up to much.
When we got back, there were a lot more photographers, bird watchers and walkers around. The owls were still up in their tree, calling so we chatted to some other photographers. One of the owlets had moved out onto a more open branch, so I moved in with my camera and took some images handheld.
I was at 600 mm and in aps-c mode, so I could get some more reach with the lens in camera, as I find that with this set up, when the subject is quite small and the surrounds busy, then the focus misses quite a lot.
The owl that I was focused on was getting quite fidgety at this point, and flew towards me and I managed to get a photo!!!! I am just as surprised as you are at this. I held my finger on the shutter and did my best to track it, I got 4 photos of the flight, with only one being in focus! It was the best one though, where it first took flight.
To say I am happy with this is an understatement! While it’s not technically perfect, I was the only one, from all the photographers there to actually get the image as I was in the right place at the right time. I was lucky that I was hand holding the camera at this point also and had a shutter speed of 1/800s, while it didn’t freeze the action on the wings, it was fast enough to get the head and face sharp.
I backed away from where the owlet had now perched and got my camera back on the tripod so I could take some more images of it in its new surroundings.
Eventually it moved off again and into another tree, where it stayed perched for the rest of our time there.
The second owlet was now getting a bit more active (it was now 20:30 pm) and I captured an image of it looking out of the tree and into the now golden evening. I am very happy with this image as the little owlet really stands out with its orange eyes amongst the green of the firs.
As it was getting darker, at this point, Ollie let me have a go with his 600mm f4 GM lens. It was really nice to be able to have a go with this lens and I can see why it is so beloved, the focus was so much faster and more accurate than my 200-600 G lens, and with that f4 the background is so much softer. If I ever win the lottery, it will be the first thing that I buy, but for now it was back to the 200-600 so Ollie could get his own photos of the beautiful owls as the sun dropped.
This was another absolutely amazing day of photography with Ollie and Jordy, I am very thankful that they are willing to take me along with them to see these beautiful birds, and I am over the moon with the images that I captured.
Check out Ollie and Jordy on Instagram:
Ollie: https://www.instagram.com/ocphoto2024/
Jordy: https://www.instagram.com/lake_side_photography_