We visited Beidler Forest last week with out of town guests. We were all delighted to see a Barred Owl shortly after leaving the visitor center and quite close to the board walk. The owl impressed the guests with a head swiveling demo but opted not to go fishing while we were watching.
It had clouded over on our way to visit the owl spot meaning the light was low, but we continued on. It was for owls, after all.
He was there, looking around and fully aware we were watching him.
With a six and one half foot (two meter) wing span the Eurasian Eagle Owl is the largest owl in the world. Orange eyes and luxurious feathers make them quite distinctive, not to mention those big ear tufts.
Found throughout Europe and Asia, they can weigh up to six pounds (2.75 KG).
The stare was quite intense!
Eurasian Eagle-owl, Bubo bubo
The Center for Birds of Prey offers photographers an opportunity to take close-up photographs of owls and other birds of prey a few times a year.
The Center for Birds of Prey, Photography Day, April 22, 2018,  Awenda, SC.
The Ural Owl is a medium-sized nocturnal owl found in Europe and northern Asia. They are in the same genus, Strix, as the locally more familiar Barred Owl.
The close ups below were taken with the Sony Alpha 6500, Sony 55-210 mm lens.
The ridge of feathers at the edge of the face create a disc, which works to trap and focus sound.
Ural Owl, Strix uralensis
The Center for Birds of Prey offers photographers an opportunity to take close-up photographs of owls and other birds of prey a few times a year.
The Center for Birds of Prey, Photography Day, April 22, 2018,  Awenda, SC.
The Center for Birds of Prey has an active breeding program. The chicks they raise are used in educational programs here and also are swapped to other similar facilities around the US.
These cuties were not on the schedule for our Photography Day, but conditions were good for these two Spectacled Owl chicks to come out and strut their stuff.
Well, mostly they just sat; they could walk and did a little wing flapping. I neglected to note how old they are, somewhere in the few week range.
Cuteness times two:
The Center for Birds of Prey offers photographers an opportunity to take close-up photographs of owls and other birds of prey a few times a year.
The Center for Birds of Prey, Photography Day, April 22, 2018,  Awenda, SC.
Excellent eye sight and hearing make the Barn Owl top-notch night time hunters. They have been the subject of numerous studies of their senses, including experiments where the readily locate mice in a room with no light.
The Barn Owl’s speckled earth tone feathers help it hide during the day, and make it a striking bird to my eye.
Showing off his wings with a stretch, this fellow was quite sedate for his photography session.
Barn Owl, Tyto alba
The Center for Birds of Prey offers photographers an opportunity to take close-up photographs of owls and other birds of prey a few times a year.
The Center for Birds of Prey, Photography Day, April 22, 2018,  Awenda, SC.
I spent Earth Day photographing birds of prey at an avian conservation center. This opportunity is part of the center’s education mission, along with research, conservation and providing medical care to injured raptors and large shore birds.
The first owl we photographed was a Savigny’s Eagle Owl, a native of much of northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
The variable brown coloring is a camouflage asset in its home desert regions.
Savigny’s Eagle Owl, Bubo ascalaphus
The Center for Birds of Prey offers photographers an opportunity to take close-up photographs of owls and other birds of prey a few times a year.
The Center for Birds of Prey, Photography Day, April 22, 2018, Â Awenda, SC.
Portrait of a Barred Owl holding his frog catch.
The best time to photograph these Barred Owls is first thing in the morning. They hang around the pond looking for food and bathing. The tree canopy is filling in and the morning we were there it was mostly cloudy, so the resulting images aren’t as clear as I’d like. But they are Owls!
The image below was taken after the frog snack of my previous post. We were moving on and the pair flew over us headed back to the pond.
The first Barred Owl from my previous post appeared to be just hanging out on a limb above a small pond, maybe nodding off.
All the while he was watching the water below. He dropped down and out of my sight. I circled around the pond to discover the Owl posing nicely at the base of a Cypress tree. I didn’t see the frog until I was developing the images.
The presence of the frog explained the behavior of the mate, who had moved to a branch above, hunched over watching, and was making clucking noises. After a few minutes of this they flew off together, I hope to share the frog.
