Today’s post features some images I captured this past Saturday, as I photographed Short-eared Owls as they began their hunting ritual around sunset.
Short-eared Owls are not year-round residents in my area. But in winter, they often will migrate southward, from the upper Midwest prairies, to prairie land in Missouri. These owls are one of my favorite photographic subjects in winter and I always enjoy spending time with them.
This past Saturday was setting up to not be an ideal day for photographing them. The weather forecast was projected to be windy and cloudy all day, with the sky starting to clear in the early evening hours. But luck was on my side! A couple of hours before sunset, the clouds began to part and eventually yielded blue skies with only slight winds. As a result, a number of short-eared owls took flight late in the afternoon and gave a wonderful performance. Here are a few of my favorite images I captured of the owls, as they began to take to the air:
In Part 2, I will continue my evening shoot with the hunting owls, as they moved even closer to where I had my camera/tripod set up!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D Mark 2 body
- Canon 500mm, f/4 IS lens + Canon 1.4x TC
- Bogen 3221 tripod, with Wemberly gimbal head
- ISO 400
- Aperture f/5.6
- Shutter 1/400 sec. to 1/500 sec.