Sunday, September 11, 2011

Surprise Under The Bridge

The big event this weekend was discovering a great horned owl sitting high up under a bridge.



Closeup:


We found him about 8am during a morning walk and took a bunch of photos with my S3 Canon.
Then we came back with all three of my cameras about 11am.
Still there.
None of my/our photos turned out very well (poor close up detail) because of the lighting, angle, distance, etc.
I think that's the first time in nature that I thought "tripod" because my subject actually stayed put.
My arms, neck, shoulders ached from holding a camera high up in the air, taking pictures, but also just plain gawking at him thru the viewer. I tried a video on him also.

He had his eyes closed a lot of the time, but if there was noise, he would open them.
Besides observing his eyes open and close, which is quite fascinating to watch on an owl, we also saw him turn his head way around, lift his huge clawed foot, ruffle feathers, and mostly just sit there and tolerate us humans.



Here's a size comparison with a pigeon, because there were lots of those perched up there as well.



What a privilege to observe!
Before we left, I thanked Mr. Magnificent for the photo shoot.



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