Snowy owl

Seems that there is another Snowy Owl irruption occurring.  The owls are appearing all over the Northeastern US.  This one is in New York State.  This owl is very calm and cooperative.  She shows no signs of stress.

This utility pole seems to be her favorite perch.  

Until next time

Jim Borden

Immature Great Horned Owls

We have had Great Horned Owls near us for years.  I shared photos of an adult last August.  We looked this winter for the owls and their nest and were not successful.  This past week we saw one of the adults and heard the young bill snapping.  Later that evening I went back out and found two young ones. 

Until next time

Jim Borden

Boreal Owl and Gray Partridge

Boreal Owl

I traveled back to Ontario Canada for the third time in a month in search of owls and other birds of the North.  Thanks to contacts in Ottawa (Wilson Hum and Bruce Di Labio ) I was able to add the Boreal Owl to my life list.  The cute little bird was nestled in a cluster of spruce trees.  I had to crawl back into the center of the cluster to get a clear shot of the owl.  It was not at all disturbed by our presence.  As there is still much controversy about flash photography and owls, I prefer not to use any form of fill flash on them.  Therefore, the low light capability of the Nikon D4 body came in real handy.  I shot from tripod with Nikon D4 and Nikon 300 f4 lens at f7.1 with a shutter speed of 1/320 and ISO 4000.  Even using f7.1, the depth of field at this subject distance did not allow for the full depth of field of the owl (notice out of focus feathers at back of head).   I watched as others attempted to shoot handheld with cameras incapable of clean images at this lighting due to elevated ISO.  My point is that the camera does not do the shooting and we have to do the framing, composition and get exposure right and teh higher technology camera bodies add a tool to our toolbox to allow us to get images we would not otherwise get. 

The owl opened its eyes slightly and looked as a lady fumbled in the 18 to 20 inches of snow to get to see the owl.  We retreated from the area to let the owl alone. 

Gray Partridge

I toured the area in search of other owls and birds. I was out looking for snowy owls when I came upon four Gray Partridge running around on top of the snow.  I saw two more Great Gray Owls near dark and the setting was terrible for getting good images-so I sat and enjoyed their presence.  I look forward to returning to the north country next winter. 

Until next time

Jim Borden

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More Life List Birds

Northern Hawk Owl

On February 22 I returned to Ontario Canada with long time friend and awesome birder Joe Demarco. we met friends Chris White and Bob Adamowicz in Ottawa to enjoy our outdoor experience together.   We were initially looking for Northern Hawk Owl, Great Gray Owl, Saw Whet Owl and Boreal Owl to add to Joe's life list.  The first afternoon we were successful at finding a Northern Hawk Owl near a location where Joan and I had seen one three weeks before.  We watched teh owl for about an hour and then moved on to potential snowy owl areas and found none of them.  As the afternoon drew to a close we traveled to where Joan and I had seen 4 Great Gray Owls.  Joan was able to spot one and we watched it until almost dark sitting on a perch occluded by branches.

We returned to teh spot prior to daylight and found the owl perched in a much more viewable position. The liught snow falling made for an awesome image.

Great Gray Owl

We had heard about Bohemian Waxwings, gray partridge, Barrow's Golden Eye , Pine Warblers and Black Back Woodpeckers being in the area so off we went in search of these birds.  We found teh Bohemian Waxwings perched in a tree in a downtown residential section of Ottawa.  beautiful bird and they provided us with no photo opportunities.  From there we traveled a short distance to a marshy area and sighted another great Gray Owl-what a beautiful and majestic bird!  We stopped at a parking area and hiked back along a trail that was overhung by trees loaded with snow-a really pretty walk.  Chickadees were bombarding us as it turns out this is a favorite place for families to take their children to hand feed teh Black Capped Chickadees.  It was truly wonderful to watch. 

We left the trail for a short distance in a burned out area and soon we had spotted the female Black Back Woodpecker hammering away on a tall tree. It was interesting to watch the bird hammer away at the tree and strip chunks of bark from the tree.  We also spotted hairy Woodpeckers in the same area.

Female Black Back Woodpecker

We spent the remainder of the afternoon looking for Snowy Owls. We finally located one sitting on top of an upturned stump in a farmer's field south of Kanata.  It was a male and was quite far off and did not provide any suitable photo opportunities. 

An acquaintance in Ottawa alerted us to a spotting of a Boreal Owl. My cell phone was acting up so we did not get the messages until after dark on Saturday evening.  So on Sunday morning we headed off to the spot of the Boreal owl.  We found where it had been perched in a Cedar Tree the previous day-there were pellets and owl poop down the tree trunk.  A search of the area yielded another 6 or 8 trees where teh owl had previously perched. We toured the farm areas looking for more Snowy Owls but only saw crows, ravens, Horned Larks and Snow Buntings. We headed home about noon. We stopped in a place near Syracuse NY where I know a Saw Whet Owl has been seen.  We found once again fresh perch areas but did not see the owl. 

It was a fun and enjoyable trip! 

Red Squirrel along Lime Kiln Trail

Until Next Time

Jim Borden

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Great Gray Owls

Full Frame 600MM image at about 50 feet

Joan and I traveled to Ontario Canada last weekend to view and photograph Great Gray Owls.  This is an irruption year for this species and there are quite a few of the owls in Ontario.  Irruptions are about 4 to 7 years apart and this is teh largest irruption in a long time.  We saw 4 of the Great Gray Owls where we were visiting.  We also got to see a Northern Hawk Owl.  We were fortunate enough to see the owls feeding one day. 

Great Gray coming along ground searching for food

Great Gray Owl getting ready to attack a mouse

Great Gray Owl with Breakfast

Great Gray Owl resting on stub at end of day

Coming in for Landing

until next time

Jim Borden

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Eastern Screech Owl

Joan and I traveled to an area near Syracuse New York to see a Saw Whet Owl.  Sadly, the owl did not cooperate.  On the way home we stopped at a spot where Screech owls have been seen. We saw one and we heard at least three others. 

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Until next time

Jim

Short Ear Owls and Harriers

Northern Harrier-Female

Each year in January the Short Ear Owls, Northern Harriers and Rough Leg Hawks show up at a farm near us to feed for a couple of weeks.  During mid day it is fun to watch the Rough Leg Hawks and Harriers cruise the fields for food.  Then, about an hour before dark, the Short Ear Owls make their appearance and chase the Hawks and Harriers from the fields.  The owls dart and dive and catch mice and perch on fenceposts, telephone poles and roofs of houses and barns.  I always look forward to visiting there this time of year to observe and capture the action. I have worked hard to get a good image of a harrier in flight.  Yesterday, was a great day!  The owls chased one of the harriers right over my head and I was able to get a good image of the female. 

The owls are somewhat elusive-but I was able to get more shots of them last evening sitting and in flight.  Most of the shots were high ISO so the detail is not as good as I would like.

Short Ear Owl sitting on Telephone pole.  Taken off bean bag laying over car window.

Short Ear Owl in flight taken from Wimberley II mount.

Until Next Time.

Jim Borden

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Snowy Owl

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 w2xtc @f9 1/1000 ISO 640 EC-.67

Joan and I had never seen a snowy owl and for the past few winters we have been watching bird lists for sightings that would be a reasonable drive.  To our surprise one had been sighted within two hours of us in November and it was still there.  We took the drive on Saturday December 3.  We walked about 1 1/2 miles to the area where the owl is staying and set up to take photos.  We had bright skies and it was cold with gusty winds.  The owl was about 150 yards from us and there was no way to close the distance without potentially disturbing the owl.  There were large rocks between us and the owl and with the sun beating on them it made for lots of mirage so getting decent images was very tough.  Compounding that, I found that I was not getting sharp images not explained by the mirage.  The lens/camera setup had been calibrated at about 70 degrees F and I had used at 50 with slight shift in focal plane.  Now at 40 F the lens was very badly back focusing.  So, I  kept adjusting the lens ma on the camera until I got sharp images and was able to get some decent shots. The following is an example-it has been severely cropped due to the distance away. I had to move the lens ma setting from a +2 to a -5!

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 w1.4xtc @f 1/800 ISO 1250 EC-.3

This morning (Sunday December 4) I left early so that I could be there at first light to reduce mirage. I had found an optional place to park last evening to cut the walk from 1 1/2 miles to about 1/2 mile and to also provide an opportunity to get closer to the owl without disturbing it.  When I parked, I found the remnants of a dead coot that was not there last night.  It appears the owl had duck for dinner after dark last night.  I was able to get in better position for her today and the air and ground temperatures were closer to being the same which kept the mirage under control.  I installed the 2X TC on the lens and calibrated it on the owl by taking a few shots. The image at the top of the page was done with that setup at about 50 to 60 yards. The following image was one of a series of bursts that I did when he was scratching the back of his head.  If you look closely at this image and the image at the top of the page, you can see blood in his feathers around the mouth-I am quite sure it is from his duck meal.  

Canon 1D MK IV; Canon 600 f4 w1.4xtc @f6.3 1/2000 ISO 640 EC-.67

This was a lifer for me!

Until next time

Jim Borden
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