Tips for finding owls

[coastalconn]

As soon as I found my first owl a month or so ago, everyone started asking me how I find them. I have sort of documented my owl journey. Hopefully this will help someone..

The spot I shoot in combines many things I think owls like, a mix of pine and hardwoods, a field, low traffic from humans and a brackish tidal cove.

For the first hour or so after sunrise, Owls seem to try to find a hiding spot from crows. I found my first owl because crows hate owls and scream and buzz the owls trying to make them leave. The owls seem to eventually find peace in pine trees that are sheltered from above... If I hear crows, I always try to find them and see what they are screaming at... It also seems that they often keep their back to the sun, so you have to look through the tree looking for "football shapes"



When there was still foliage on the hardwood trees, I spotted this guy because of a small patch of light hitting it through the leaves. I took this picture at 200mm to show my friend, a little over 100 feet away, to the naked eye it was barely visible.. I think this started training my eyes to look for lumps or abnormal looking branches in trees..



At 500mm and cleaned up a little it became one of my cleanest shots and was explored on flickr..

Great Horned Owl - (Explored!) by krisinct, on Flickr

Yesterday I took a picture with my iphone just to see what it would look like. These were the 2 great horned owls in a tall pine..
from the Iphone. You can sort of make out the one owl, the other is just a small blob.


At 500mm 1/80th iso 400, f9 +2/3EV, it cleaned up to this...

Pair of great horned owls by krisinct, on Flickr

The other thing I figured out is owls poop alot and I have found 2 trees that have "a pile of poop" so to speak at the base, so those are the first trees I check out.

 

[WesternGuy]

CC, thanks for the insight. Doesn't work for snowy owls as there are very few trees on our bald prairies. They seem to like hydro poles and fence posts though - and you are right - they do poop a lot - I have noticed that they do this just before they take off from a post. Your comments about the crows harrassing them is a good one - I will watch for that next summer when I head out into the forested foothills looking for Great Greys.

WesternGuy

 

[Forkie]

... when I head out into the forested foothills looking for Great Greys.

WesternGuy

Oh God. I wish I was coming with you. The Great Grey is my favourite bird. I spent the day with a falconer a few years ago and fell in love with one when he was sitting on my arm. They are huge, but are as light as a feather (no pun intended). I'm so jealous you have them in the wild!

 

[coastalconn]

I wish we had great greys here, but it seems they don't migrate to the right coast. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a few snowy owls to stop by this winter

 

[hvyequipmentman]

here is one in my yard

 

[MSnowy]

Thanks for the info. If Snowy owls show up they're a little easier to find.They're out and around during the day.