Mother nature decided to shine upon me for four days in late December by being sunny all day. Now anyone in the Vancouver, BC area knows that the winters are absolutely dreary and getting more than one perfect day in a row is to be celebrated. So after being cooped up inside for all of the Christmas holidays I spent four days photographing birds. I was tracking this Short Eared Owl in my viewfinder and through my peripheral vision saw a Harrier swooping close to my owl. From past experience I have seen owls and harriers chase each other almost locking talons many times. I've seen harriers steal the prey from these short eared owls before but never photographed it. As I saw the harrier come into my viewfinder I let the shutter go and was able to capture 5 shots before the action was over with the harrier stealing the owls dinner.
There is a happy ending of course. The owl later found something to eat just a short distance in front of my camera. This time it decided to eat it in the tall grass quickly before anything could steal it.
Canon 5Dm3 + 600mm F4 IS + 1.4 Extender III @ 1/3200 F5.6 ISO 1000
Epic Harrier / Short Eared Owl Dinner Mid Flight Steal
Nice looking capture...on both your parts, although I think I'd rather have your picture than it's lunch...and of course it's back to being dreary, but at least you were able to get out there for this.
I would love to see more of this action 