Barred Owl

Today, 12-22-20, I went out a little earlier than I normally do to go look for “my” Great Horned Owl. I checked her normal hang-outs, but I couldn’t locate her. I continued walking the woods in case I could hear her call, but very unlikely with all the noise from the high winds.  

After an hour and a half I decided to sit down to listen and scan the area for “my” GHO. I took my backpack off, set it down and was going to sit on the ground with my back against a large tree. I was just about to sit, but instead I decided to sit on a log a few feet further away.

I turned around after a couple minutes and sat down on the log.  Well, I look up and see a Barred Owl watching me from a distance of maybe 12 yards. My backpack with my camera gear is 5 to 6 feet away from me, but closer to the owl. If I want to get any pictures of the owl I need to get up and get my backpack.

I got out my camera that already had my 1.4x teleconverter attached and put on my 500mm lens. I took a shot of the owl and could  see that I’m too close. I backed up a little while still on the log. That’s better but not what I need if I want to do some video. I ended up about 22 yards from the owl. The owl was busy sleeping so she wasn’t concerned with whatever I was doing, I also removed the teleconverter after a few shots.

I located the owl at 2pm and I watched it until a few minutes past 5pm.It slept most of the time. I hoped to get some flying shots of the owl when it woke up, but it never flew away until I was all packed up and it was completely dark out. I was able to get a shot of the owl regurgitating a pellet and a couple episodes of “white wash”. We all know what that is! I didn't include a picture of this, but the first episode was on video.