I have been visiting and photographing an owlet family for approximately 2.5 months. The family consists of the father and 5 owlets. At the beginning the owlets just hopped around (https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1703346) and when they started flying they managed to do so in short distances and fairly close to the ground. From early on I noticed that one owlet showed a quite intense bullying behavior towards one of the siblings (https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1703800).
They seemed to find their food more on the ground near their burrow (https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1706946). Some small bugs, even stinky black bugs are on the menu. I was at the site a week ago and they started to hunt flying June bugs mid-air but they still missed quite a bit. I was there this morning and I noticed, to my delight, that their hunting skill showed a significant improvement over a week ago. The owlets are basically young adults now and they are quite good in hunting and catching bettles/bugs mid-air.
Based on the duration and frequent visits to the site, I have tons of images, including quite a few in-flight sequences. For this thread, however, I am limiting the images to 12 to show the development. So, the images are largely in chronological sequence.
Thank you for stopping by and please feel free to leave any feedback,
Joshua
Joshua, What a fantastic set. Being able to watch and document their development over several months had to be very satisfying. As always great work, enjoyed these very much.
A superb set Joshua. The great big eyes in the second grabbed my attention and then the next image has the two specular highlights reminding me of the eyes. I don't know if you planned that yet I love it. The use of backlight and works great in some of these, a great set showing off your skills as a photographer and your artistic eye.
G.E. Smith wrote:
Joshua, What a fantastic set. Being able to watch and document their development over several months had to be very satisfying. As always great work, enjoyed these very much.
Greg
I greatly appreciate your kind words, Greg and yes, I had a blast documenting their development.
Mongrel wrote:
Ab
So
Lute
Ly
Speechless...
(but I could stare at these for hours).
You make the National Geographic of my youth look like coloring books...
Thank you very much for your kind words, Anthony. I am flattered and humbled at the same time...
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Including yesterday, I was at the site in total 11 times in the last 2.5 months. In the beginning there were a few photographers at best and there was a single occasion I was there all by myself. Yesterday, I counted some 25 cars parked there at the site! And yes, it was quite crowded now . As long as the large crowd does not bother the owls, I am fine and so far, so good. It is basically the only game in town at the moment.
I still have plenty of keepers that I have to go through and edit... I can keep myself busy the entire summer and frankly, I am not done following those owls since they have mastered catching June bugs mid-air now. I am planning of going back tomorrow, adding more to the thousands of files to be reviewed, selected and edited.
Here are 3 additional images then... I hope you like them, too, and thank you.
morris wrote:
A superb set Joshua. The great big eyes in the second grabbed my attention and then the next image has the two specular highlights reminding me of the eyes. I don't know if you planned that yet I love it. The use of backlight and works great in some of these, a great set showing off your skills as a photographer and your artistic eye.
Morris
Thank you for your kind words, Morris! I am glad you like the sequence of the two there and the images in general. I didn’t do it deliberately in the field and I followed the capturing sequence and it just happened to be that way.
OSP2017 wrote:
Fantastic set, Joshua! It's always such a delight to see your pictures!
. As long as the large crowd does not bother the owls, I am fine and so far, so good. It is basically the only game in town at the moment.
