I captured this nice light on a recent trip up to the mountains here in Colorado. I don't know the name of this large rock formation but it was impressive to see in person.
Looking at a Limpkin.
Cropped, tripod mounted 200-600mm G set to 600mm and A7rIII; silent shutter.
ISO 200, f6.3, 1/200 second.
Exposure corrected -0.49 Stops.
January 6, 2020
At Gatorland, Orlando or Kissimmee, FL.
For whatever reasons, the burrowing owl population at the site I have been visiting in the last several years has declined to a point of being wiped out. It is a sad affair, to say the least . Here is an image from the last season when they were quite a bit of them and active...
AGeoJO wrote:
For whatever reasons, the burrowing owl population at the site I have been visiting in the last several years has declined to a point of being wiped out. It is a sad affair, to say the least . Here is an image from the last season when they were quite a bit of them and active...
Sad to hear Joshua. Are they in or near a populated area? Is there a wildlife Organisation that covers that area you could contact about it? Here in NL we have wildlife management done by a government agency and several wildlife groups that cover certain areas. I usually contact them when I notice a sudden decline in population of a certain species.
HelenaN wrote:
How sad Joshua. Wonder what has happened.
Love all the photos you have shared of them.
7Artisans 75mm/1.25:
therealthings wrote:
Sad to hear Joshua. Are they in or near a populated area? Is there a wildlife Organisation that covers that area you could contact about it? Here in NL we have wildlife management done by a government agency and several wildlife groups that cover certain areas. I usually contact them when I notice a sudden decline in population of a certain species.
Helena and Marcus,
Burrowing owls are actually quite common in the Southwestern US. They are not endangered in other words. What makes them special is the location here since you can get unobstructed view of the burrow. After catching their prey, they fly back to the burrow and you can take great pictures of them flying straight at you, meaning at your direction before getting to their burrow
I posted a thread about the sad situation of the burrowing owls on the Nature and Wildlife forum. And another FMer that lives nearby reported similar situations at a few other sites. So, that phenomenon is not isolated to the location I have been frequenting. It seems to be more widespread in the region.
Their favorite food is June bug. Those are green iridescent beetles and they can be as large as 5-6cm long. Those beetles emerge from the ground on warm days and fly around in the field. When I was there on a warm day about 10 days ago, I didn’t see any June bug at all. I noticed that another FMer posted a few images of owls eating whatever they could find, including smaller bugs. It could be that their food supply is on the decline, and as such impacting the owl population negatively. Who knows the real reason why. Our hope is that they would be able to make a comeback next year.
Several months down the road, we are still suffering from the pandemic here on this side of the pond. Most European countries are better off in the that respect. Frankly, I don’t think any agancy would care about some owls population at this point unless it is an act of vandalism. And again, burrowing owls are not endangered...
Helena, lovely images using the 7Artisans lens. Well, it s the person behind the camera that creates those lovely images .
Seems to be rather a long time since I last posted, sorry!
From a couple of local walks during early lockdown. First one Loxia 35, next two Voigtlander Nokton 50 f1.2:
Helena and Marcus,
Burrowing owls are actually quite common in the Southwestern US. They are not endangered in other words. What makes them special is the location here since you can get unobstructed view of the burrow. After catching their prey, they fly back to the burrow and you can take great pictures of them flying straight at you, meaning at your direction before getting to their burrow
I posted a thread about the sad situation of the burrowing owls on the Nature and Wildlife forum. And another FMer that lives nearby reported similar situations at a few other sites. So, that phenomenon is not isolated to the location I have been frequenting. It seems to be more widespread in the region.
Their favorite food is June bug. Those are green iridescent beetles and they can be as large as 5-6cm long. Those beetles emerge from the ground on warm days and fly around in the field. When I was there on a warm day about 10 days ago, I didn’t see any June bug at all. I noticed that another FMer posted a few images of owls eating whatever they could find, including smaller bugs. It could be that their food supply is on the decline, and as such impacting the owl population negatively. Who knows the real reason why. Our hope is that they would be able to make a comeback next year.
Several months down the road, we are still suffering from the pandemic here on this side of the pond. Most European countries are better off in the that respect. Frankly, I don’t think any agancy would care about some owls population at this point unless it is an act of vandalism. And again, burrowing owls are not endangered...
Helena, lovely images using the 7Artisans lens. Well, it s the person behind the camera that creates those lovely images .
Thanks for the explanation Joshua. Even though they are not endangered, you don't want them on that list either. We have a large problem in our country with biodiversity which results in several species that are suffering badly from it. Our national bird the Godwit is not endangered but threatened to be listed if things don't change soon. So there are lots of initiatives to restore biodiversity e.g. to mow some fields after the breeding season (but only the govt. bought lands, not the farmland unfortunately) plant diverse herbs and flowers for insects to profit from (and eventually the entire food chain). It is a long process, but i am happy that these initiatives exist before it is too late. I hope the owl population over there will be restored as it was before.
Peter T wrote:
Seems to be rather a long time since I last posted, sorry!
From a couple of local walks during early lockdown. First one Loxia 35, next two Voigtlander Nokton 50 f1.2
Peter - all these images are so beautiful. Well done!
. Here is an image from the last season when they were quite a bit of them and active...
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