Took a walk this morning in a natural area park, near where I live. Just as I was walking out, I saw a couple of magpies making more racket than usual in a tree near where I was walking. From past experience, knowing how they like to pester birds of prey, I walked over in their direction and saw what they were agitated about. Got several pictures of this beautiful great horned owl. Not the first time magpies have alerted me to great photos, just by being pests
canon.eos30d wrote:
Magnificent GHO with nice background, Gordon
-Tam
Thanks, I was very lucky to see it, let alone get photos. Thought for sure it would take off right away after seeing me. Maybe it was thanking me for scaring off the magpies
Nice capture. Always a pain in the ass when one can't get an angle to not get those hot sky spots in the background. No magpies around here, but robins lead me to owls.
1bwana1 wrote:
On my list of gotta shoot one day. Great images, congratulations.
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Imagemaster wrote:
Nice capture. Always a pain in the ass when one can't get an angle to not get those hot sky spots in the background. No magpies around here, but robins lead me to owls.
Tony
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Warkari wrote:
Great job capturing this. Always a challenge for me dealing with the backlighting because the owls are high up in the tree.
Amit
Thanks everyone and yes backlighting is always a challenge with owls.
arbitrage wrote:
Great find and very nice shots in tough conditions. We use the Robins as owl guides in this neck of the woods as we don't have the magpies.
TFS
Geoff
Thanks Geoff! The magpies here are great for alerting us to birds of prey, but it is a double edged sword, as they have also ruined a lot of shots for me, as they tend to pester the bird until it takes off. Crows are the same way. Saw one pestering a Swainson's hawk last week as it flew by. I always have to take the shots quickly in these instances or the bird is long gone. Thanks for the comment.