January Snow: Snowy Owl Irruption

 

Around a month ago, I began to notice snowy owl photos taken in Presque Isle State Park and posted by some of my Facebook friends.  Reports of Snowy sightings kept filtering in until it was clear that a major Snowy Owl irruption was underway.

My niece, Amy, a devoted birder e-mailed me about a late December sighting in neighboring Franklin County and then later about a report of a bird sighted in the Clear Ridge area of Fulton County.  Following up on the Clear Ridge tip, I spent a Sunday morning unsuccessfully trying to locate the bird.  When she e-mailed again Wednesday that Snowies were being sighted again in Franklin County near Mercersburg I drove through the area on my way home from work and spotted one bird a long distance from the road.  Returning the next evening I located two owls.  The photos above are of the second bird.

 

This morning Willard and I were in the area at daybreak and spotted our first owl well before sunrise.  With the temperature in the low twenties and the wind howling we set up the tripods and tried to shoot sharp images even though it was impossible to steady the cameras. 

This owl was quite active, taking flight and relocating several times.

From what I have gleaned from the reports on the 2013-2014 irruption, it is pretty much an eastern phenomena with at least one owl reported as far south as northern Florida.  Some are reporting that this is the largest irruption in fifty years while others describe it as a once-in-a-lifetime event.

As for me, Wednesday evening was the very first I had ever observed a snowy owl followed by my first photographs on Thursday making the impressive white owl my first lifer for the year!

Later in the morning after the first owl had moved out of range we spotted another snowy a mile or so away from the first.

 

This owl relocated a number of times with this photo being of one of its landings.

While reading about this unusual owl irruption on the web I ran across an ongoing snowy owl migration study called Project SNOWstorm, a study involving GPS tracking.  Currently three owls have been fitted with transmitters and are mapping their travels.

Lucky Break: Barred Owl

Canon EOS 6D, 600mm F4L IS USM   f5.6, 1/400,ISO800

 

 

With a little time to kill, I tossed the camera into the car this evening and went looking for some kind of wildlife to photograph.  As I approached the bottom of a back road hollow I spotted a barred owl perched in a roadside tree.  The owl would allow me to position the car, get the camera into position long enough for a couple of shots before flying away a short distance.  Out of four perches the owl settled on I was able to get shooting three times with this shot being the best for sharpness and background.

Another Barred Owl Encounter

As I was driving along PA 915 between two stretches of State Forestry road a large bird swooped across the roadway landing on an upright snag. Fortunately the berm was wide enough that I had room to saftely pull the car off the roadway.

The owl watched me intently while I clicked the shutter rapidly. I only captured two images. By the third shot all I caught was tail feathers of a rapidly departing bird.

Encountering these birds of the night is extremely rare. I feel that I have been very fortunate to have had two separate encounters in the last two months with both resulting in successful photographs.

Barred Owl, 300th Post

One of my favorite photographs from the past fall’s wildlife shooting is this shot of a Barred Owl. This was one of the many shots I captured while following this owl around Big Meadow in the Shenandoah National Park. If you missed my first post where I tell the story of this adventure, click the label “Owl” at the bottom of this post.



With this post I am celebrating my 300th post. My photography and equipment has changed quite a bit since beginning this endeavor. When I began posting I was shooting a relatively new Canon S2 IS which actually was my third digital camera.

My first digital was a little HP fixed focus, fixed lens point & shoot that ran the batteries down quickly. It used two AA rechargeable batteries with a run time never exceeding five minutes. This camera was a Christmas gift from my in-laws in 2003. The HP taught me that digital was the direction I needed to go and soon I upgraded to a Canon A85, 4mp with a 3X optical zoom. Soon after acquiring it my niece Amy (ASH) showed up with a neat little camera, the Canon S1 IS. With its 10X optical zoom it was quite an impressive tool. Shortly after the Canon S2 was introduced I took the plunge and few months later began blogging.

This past August after spending a some time behind Willard’s Canon 10D mounted on his 500mm lens I recognized that for me to continue the digital passion I had no choice but to upgrade to a DSLR. Soon a Canon 30D along with a 24mm-105mm F4L IS arrived from B&H and with it I began exploring the world anew. With a Canon 100-400 borrowed from Willard I entered this fall carrying a tool kit capable of capturing good wildlife shots; thus Country Captures has changed for a time from being a rural scenery blog to more wildlife oriented. Where will it go from here? I cannot say as I rarely plan a post until the minute I sit down in front of the monitor.

Thanks to all who have kept me company on this journey and encouraged me on with your kind comments along the way. It has been fun!

An Unusual Encounter

Upon arriving at Big Meadows daylight was just beginning to lighten the leaden sky. We parked at a pull-off a little south of the visitor’s center to await better photographic light. After sitting there for a few minutes I noticed a large owl swoop into a tree and perch out of sight. As the morning slowly brightened the owl moved numerous times until it came to rest on a snag nearby.

We began shooting although the light level was extremely low. I was shooting the Canon 100-400 F5.6 lens and even with the ISO set to 1600 I could only achieve a 1/15th shutterspeed. Soon the owl moved again and I followed unsure if the photographs I had taken were sufficiently sharp.

The Barred Owl allowed me to follow it around with camera and tripod as long as I maintained a distance of 15 – 20 yards. At one point it even launched a successful attack capturing some small prey animal along the roadside and eating it in only a few bites.

This game continued until the day brightened sufficiently for me to attain the 1/60th shutter speed at ISO 500 used to capture this image. I felt certain by this time that I had captured images of acceptable sharpness and left the Owl to continue its hunt in peace.