Owls! (Burrowing and Barn)

Aloicious · Jul 2, 2013

We'll start off with a sleepy Barn Owl:
1

I finally found some burrowing owls! I've been looking for some over the past couple months and was able to capture some shots today. I definitely need to go back with my TC and in a vehicle with higher ground clearance, these guys are small (about the size of a large robin) but fairly skittish, so many of them are pretty heavily cropped, I also had to focus through a lot of weeds that were standing taller than the owls were and I couldn't get high enough to see over the weeds, lots of missed focus shots from today, but at least I know a location for them...here's a few quick edits, if I find more, or have a little more time to play with these I'll probably refine them a bit.

Balancing Act:
2

How YOU doin'?
3

Smile! (actually this is part of a yawn, it just doesn't look like it)
4

You put your right foot in....
5

coastalconn · Jul 2, 2013

Fantastic set! I love #5!

kundalini · Jul 2, 2013

Friggin' awesome captures and commentary. Thanks for sharing.

Dagwood56 · Jul 2, 2013

Great shots! Love the wink and the leg shake.

Aloicious · Jul 2, 2013

coastalconn said:
Fantastic set! I love #5!

Thanks, that's probably my favorite of these ones as well

kundalini said:
Friggin' awesome captures and commentary. Thanks for sharing.

The burrowing owls are so animated and their faces are so expressive its just a blast to watch them.

Dagwood56 said:
Great shots! Love the wink and the leg shake.

Thanks!

PixelRabbit · Jul 2, 2013

#1 looks like how I feel today, we did Canada Day weekend up good this year, today is a day of recovery lol

The Burrowing Owls are fantastic, great set.

MSnowy · Jul 2, 2013

Great set! #3#4and #5 kind of looks like me on the way home from a night out with the boys

jedirunner · Jul 2, 2013

Fantastic set! I absolutely love #2 and #5. Great shots!

Kevin

DarkShadow · Jul 2, 2013

Awesome shots! What is on the owls leg? It looks like a ID band like On parakeets or domestic birds.On photo #2 it looks like a ID band on his right leg and on #3 and 5 looks like its on the left.A rescue injured - tagged and release maybe.

BlackSheep · Jul 2, 2013

Ha great set! Shots #3 and #5 made me laugh!

IByte · Jul 2, 2013

PixelRabbit said:
#1 looks like how I feel today, we did Canada Day weekend up good this year, today is a day of recovery lol

The Burrowing Owls are fantastic, great set.

You owls can eat a bunny, right Pixel? Oo

Very nice set, thanks for sharing.

PropilotBW · Jul 2, 2013

DarkShadow said:
Awesome shots! What is on the owls leg? It looks like a ID band like On parakeets or domestic birds.On photo #2 it looks like a ID band on his right leg and on #3 and 5 looks like its on the left.A rescue injured - tagged and release maybe.

ID Tracking band, yes.

Where were these pics taken? Wildlife Refuge?

Aloicious · Jul 2, 2013

PixelRabbit said:
#1 looks like how I feel today, we did Canada Day weekend up good this year, today is a day of recovery lol

The Burrowing Owls are fantastic, great set.

hah...thanks! I feel that way after getting home from a night shift on my other job

MSnowy said:
Great set! #3#4and #5 kind of looks like me on the way home from a night out with the boys

hah, he kinda does look like he could use a designated driver...

jedirunner said:
Fantastic set! I absolutely love #2 and #5. Great shots!

Kevin

Thanks Kevin!

DarkShadow said:
Awesome shots! What is on the owls leg? It looks like a ID band like On parakeets or domestic birds.On photo #2 it looks like a ID band on his right leg and on #3 and 5 looks like its on the left.A rescue injured - tagged and release maybe.

Thanks, its a tracking band, they use it to help research and track migration and such, especially on these burrowing owls, the males tend to migrate much further than the females, so they even use a little radio tracking 'backpack' on some of the males. I was talking with a wildlife service biologist that was explaining how they caught and tagged the birds, he even had a few eagle bands with him that he let me look at. interesting note, most birds just get a non-latched aluminum tag like these guys because the birds aren't able to bend the aluminum sufficiently to remove it, larger raptors like hawks and falcons get a crimped band since they are strong enough to bend a non-crimped band off, and Eagles specifically get a thicker, riveted band. It was fun to talk to the guy and hear stories about climbing the cliff faces to get to some eaglet nests to band them, etc...

here's an old pic of an Eagle I took last winter, you can see he has 2 separate bands:

BlackSheep said:
Ha great set! Shots #3 and #5 made me laugh!

heh

thanks

IByte said:
You owls can eat a bunny, right Pixel? Oo

Very nice set, thanks for sharing.

hah I don't know if the burrowing owls could eat a bunny, but that bar owl probably could heh, Thanks!

PropilotBW said:
ID Tracking band, yes.

Where were these pics taken? Wildlife Refuge?

kindof, its a State Park called 'Antelope Island' in the great salt lake, but they work a lot with the wildlife service and pretty much function like a wildlife refuge and migratory bird refuge. I call it 'Little Yellowstone' since there are such a variety of wild animals and birds on the small island.