Barred owls, woo-hoo-ho-hoooo!

So this is fun. And a bit of a response to all those people who say to me “How’d you get such great pictures? You must have a really good camera!”

Well sure, the camera helps… but no matter what camera you have, you do need to know how to use it. (Honestly, I’ve taken some great photos on Dave’s phone when I wasn’t carrying my gear with me… in fact, I will do a post about that at some point! I’ll link here when I do). Done: here it is.

The big thing about wildlife photography, really, is just spending lots of time out there. Sure, every now and then you go out to the woods or wherever and you get lucky: something interesting happens. An eagle swoops down, a bear pops out of the bush, you come across an active bird’s nest.

But the things is, the more time you spend out there, the more of those lucky happenings you will witness.

So… these owls.

I have been visiting them for seven years now! I have not yet found the nest – as in actually seen it – but I am pretty sure I know where it is to within about 50 m.

I’ve been talking to these owls, too. They hoot back when I call, and usually they’ll fly over. (And no, I would never feed them, that is totally wrong). The summer before last, one time four of them flew over – two pairs, singing two duets with me!

These guys are fledglings – probably actually their first day out of the next when these photos were taken (I say that because there were three together – and by the next day they were more dispersed). I’d been chatting with their parents for a couple of years – but you can tell that these guys didn’t know what to say to me. Have a look (and – if you were wondering about the title of this post, this video will explain):

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