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SuperB owl Sunday

2/13/2022

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In honor of SuperB owl Sunday. Here is a short video of some my photos of superb owls.
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Great Gray Owl at Sunset

11/5/2021

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Great Gray Owl at sunset with golden Tamarack trees in the background. Sax-Zim Bog, northern, MN, 11/3/2021. Photo taken from the car, 20-30 yards away. (Thanks to Mike Lentz Nature Photography and Monika Bobek for their suggestions on where to find this guy.) Click images to see larger.

A short video of a Great Gray Owl at sunset.
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Cerro Gordo Photo Show 2021

5/14/2021

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Three of my photos were accepted to the 41st Annual Cerro Gordo Photo Show this year. Always an honor. Photos in the Photo Show can be seen at the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum until July 10, 2021. Click images to see full image.
Eastern Screech Owl photo
Sandhill Cranes flying at Sunrise photo
Early morning reflections of two trees on the surface of a pond.
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Great Horned Owlets

4/30/2021

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A Great Horned Owlet about ready to fledge the nest (taken today) and its younger sibling (taken last week). It was really dark back in the limestone cave, even on a bright day. I've enjoyed photographing young owls in this same nest for several years, but I almost never see an adult where I can get a photo.
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Three Owl Day

4/17/2021

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Great Horned Owlets
Four eyes on puffballs. Fluffy young Great Horned Owlets in their nest area checking me out. I have photographed owls in this same cave in North Iowa for several years. I don't know if it is the same adults breeding here but there has been a nest every year for 10 years or more. These youngsters will leave the nest in a couple of weeks and never return. (I was across the river about 40-50 yards away. 840mm and cropped.)
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Gray Morph Eastern Screech Owl
Gray morph Eastern Screech Owl. A guest at the Cupola Inn Bed and Breakfast. I photographed an owl in this nest box last year. Maybe a return guest? I was across the yard, keeping my distance. (840mm and cropped.)
Click images to see larger.
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Great Gray Owls - Northern Minnesota

2/4/2021

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On my second trip to Northern Minnesota this winter I was able to photograph three Great Gray Owls, the largest owl by height in North America. There was many miles of back-roads driving northwest of Two Harbors, but I also saw one along the highway with about a dozen other photographers lined up along the shoulder of the road. The shape of the face acts like a parabolic reflector and amplifies the sound of distant critters. Their ears are offset with the sound reaching one ear a millisecond sooner than the other ear to help them identify the specific location of the sound. A Great Gray Owl sitting up in a tree can dive with pinpoint accuracy to grab an unseen vole or mouse under the snow.
[Click each image to see larger]

A Great Gray Owl perched on a tree top
A Great Gray Owl perched in a pine tree
A Great Gray Owl perched in a tree
Short Video:

More Owls

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A Snowy Owl Day

2/3/2021

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I went searching for a Snowy Owl today and found two, south of Nerstrand, MN. I came across the first as it was starting to fly. I quickly stopped the car, rolled down the window and started firing off shots with the camera pointed out the window before I even started to focus or lock on to the bird in flight. I'm just including the out of focus photo here to show the overall speckled coloring of the (female) bird. The second all white (adult male) bird was a few miles away, out in the middle of the field, squinting in to the bright sun and blowing snow. Neither are great photos, but is the closest I've been to Snowy Owls this winter. Still looking (and I appreciate tips). [Click images to see larger]
A Snowy Owl flying across a snow covered farm field
An all white Snowy Owl flying sitting in a snow covered farm field
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Short-eared Owls

12/31/2020

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December 31, New Year's Eve day, the last day of 2020. After half a day of Eagle and geese photography I headed over to the Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area near Oxford, IA to take photos of Short-eared Owls. While not a guarantee, they have recently been flying over the grasslands in the couple of hours before sunset searching for mice. I was fortunate to see seven or eight and got photos of two, one flying and one perched on a small tree branch right at eye level near the road. I was able to take photos of the second one quietly from the car in the dim light just before sunset. It was a great way to end the last few daylight hours of the year.
[Click images to see larger]
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Sax-Zim Bog

12/5/2020

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Photo of an American Pine Marten
American Pine Marten
I have been to the Sax-Zim Bog area northwest of Duluth,  Minnesota several times. (You can use the search box on this site to search for Sax-Zim Bog to see previous posts.) On this trip I was fortunate enough to spend some time photographing an American Pine Marten, a ferocious predator, a member of the weasel family about 24-30" long. I also saw a white Ermine (Black-tailed Weasel). They run really fast and are hard to photograph. People flock to the bog area in the winter time to see Great Grey Owls, Northern Hawk Owls and Snowy Owls. I did get photos of one Great Grey late in the day a little after the sun went down, but I missed the other owls (they don't seem to let us know where and when they will be available for photos). I saw a nice Rough-legged Hawk sitting on the top of a tree and snapped a few photos just as it launched off the top. Some of the other birds I saw are below and identified in the captions. I didn't go to all of the feeder areas so I did miss some of the smaller winter birds, but over-all this was a good trip.
Click images to see larger.
Photo of an American Pine Marten
Photo of an Ermine (Black-tailed Weasel)
Photo of a Red Squirrel sitting on a small tree branch.
Photo of a Red Squirrel
Photo of a White-tailed Deer doe
Photo of a Rough-legged Hawk flying
Photo of a Bald Eagle perched in a tree.
Photo of a Great Grey Owl perched in a tree at dusk.
Photo of a male Pine Grosbeak perched on a branch.
Photo of a female Pine Grosbeak perched on a branch.
Photo of a Hairy Woodpecker
Photo of a Blue Jay perched on a branch.
Photo of a Gray Jay perched on a branch.
Photo of a Gray Jay perched on a branch.
Photo of a Red-breasted Nuthatch perched on a branch.
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A Tale of Two Screech Owls

5/3/2020

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I'm often asked why I take so many pictures of the same subject. The simple answer is the next frame or the next photo outing may be better than the last.  The photo on the left is a gray-morph Eastern Screech-Owl in a Wood Duck nest box. I thought it might be the only guest at the Cupola Inn Bed and Breakfast this spring. However, I went back the next day and got photos of a second gray-morph Eastern Screech-Owl in a different nest box from the first one that I photographed the previous day. Better lighting the second time and I was able to get a better view before it ducked back inside. The slight difference in color of these two images may be due to the lighting,  time of day and auto-white balance on the camera. (Click images to see larger.)
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Update 5/17/2020: I just saw that one of my Screech Owl photos is being used as the banner image on the Owl About Iowa Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/owlaboutiowa/ .
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Great Horned Owl Fledglings

4/25/2020

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It turned in to an all-day jaunt of bushwhacking and paddling, but I finally got some photos of one of the two Great Horned owlets that fledged the nest two days ago. Fortunately this one sat in the same tree all day (still a bit unsure of his wings), apparently waiting for me to get a somewhat clear view. Thanks to Dale for a great day of paddling.
(Click the images to see larger)

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Northern Saw-whet Owl at Lime Creek

3/25/2020

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A Northern Saw-whet Owl at the Lime Creek Conservation Area in North Iowa. I really enjoy photographing owls (as you may have noticed). These little guys are pretty hard to find. Only about 8" tall and they sit very still most of the day, only hunting at night. (Click images to see larger)
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Spring Break at Lime Creek - Raptors

3/13/2020

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The Lime Creek Nature Center held a 'Spring Break at Lime Creek' program yesterday presented by Linette from S.O.A.R. (Saving Our Avian Resources). It was a chance to see some raptors up close and to learn more about the birds.
(Click images below to see larger)



An Eastern Screech Owl. This is an education bird with a broken wing and can't be released back to the wild.

A female Red-tailed Hawk. This is an education bird that has been imprinted on humans and can't be released back to the wild.
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Raptors in Rapid City

2/7/2020

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PictureShort-eared Owl (Click to see larger)
Returning from our trip to Yellowstone National Park (see previous posts) we had an opportunity to spend a couple of extra days in Rapid City, SD when I-90 was closed due to a snowstorm. We found a Birds and Blooms event at a local greenhouse and went to get a breath of spring in the greenhouses and to see the raptors from the Black Hills Raptor Center. These are education birds that have been injured or imprinted on humans and can't be returned to the wild. It is always cool to see raptors up close and to to take photos in a somewhat controlled environment (well, there were dozens of people trying to see the birds also). The birds below include Short-eared Owl, American Kestrel, Eastern Screech Owl (red phase), Red-tailed Hawk and a Ferruginous Hawk.
[Click imaged below to see larger]


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Burrowing Owl Photo

10/2/2019

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Picture[Click to see larger]
I was pleased to see that my photo of a Burrowing Owl in a Humbolt county, IA, corn field last year was used on the cover of the 'Iowa Bird Life', the journal of the Iowa Ornithologists' Union (Summer 2018 issue). https://iowabirds.org . It appears that his head is on backwards as he is looking 180 degrees to the rear. The photo was taken from the car with a 600mm lens.
It is very unusual to see a Burrow Owl in Iowa. This lone owl dug a hole early in the spring before the corn field was planted and sat there fro a couple of weeks calling for a non-existent mate. The owl eventually disappeared, I hope moving on to a better environment.
In this same issue of Iowa Bird Life a couple of other photos I submitted were also used.


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