Jody Melanson
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Mykayel wrote:
Greg Schneider wrote:
Baited?
Awesome pictures, I really like 1 and 3... but I couldn't see how it wasn't baited and used to being baited. Any owl I've ever seen in the wild I've had trouble getting within 50 yards of it before it would fly out of a tree, yet alone getting one to litght on your tripod...
This type of Owl is extremely approachable around here, bait or no bait. We have also had Barred Owls and Great Gray Owls that are very approachable without bait around here. It's awesome! 
The reason he landed on the tripod is: we were out in a field and there were no trees around. A Hawk Owl likes to perch on the highest tree/thing around.
That being said, some of these pictures were captured by using feeder Mice. I thought death by an Owl was more dignified than being eaten by a Snake! The death is quick from an Owl. He grabs the Mouse and if the talons don't kill it, he lifts it and severs the spine with his beak ending the Mouse's life.
This is the only way to get these kind of images unless you are extremely lucky. There was an older photographer there one day and he said he has been waiting 35 years for an opportunity like this.
I don't want to get into ethics here, as you have three or four sides to this.
1. People that don't like baiting and will never change their minds on the subject.
2. People that do bait conscientiously and with thought for the Raptor's well being and will never change their minds on the subject.
3. Fence sitters that don't have an opinion one way or the other.
I don't think any of them are wrong, just different is all. As long as one side doesn't try to force their opinion on the other side, there isn't a problem. Every one is entitled to their own opinion no matter what others think, IMHO .
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