Landham Brook Marsh Conservation Area: Barred Owl

       Landham Brook Marsh Conservation Area: Barred Owl

...When I finished photographing the red tailed hawks, I heard a cawing noise coming from deep in the woods. Both blue jays and crows will mob raptors, owls, raccoons, or foxes, because they are a threat to their nests. Whenever I hear a mob of jays or crows, I follow the sound, to see if they are cawing AT something. Sometimes, though, they will caw for social reasons. I still have a hard time telling the two apart. I followed the calls. They were all coming from a stand of white pines near the dead end I was parked at. At this point I was completely lost. I didn't realize how close to the parking area I was. The sound of the blue jays stopped. I thought the owl must have flown off. That's when I noticed a little, dark lump, perched on a branch. A barred owl.

I hadn't seen a barred owl in about 4 years, and I bought my DSLR camera: Canon Rebel T3 only 7 months ago, so I've never gotten a good photo of one. My last sighting was of one that would spend the day in a cherry tree in our backyard, during the winter of 2018. Its perch was so close to the window, that i could take identifiable photos of it with my phone:

It stopped coming a few days after we found it, probably due to my young self and friends watching it so much, the blue jays, and road construction in our neiborhood.

Today, I was determined to get a good photo of the owl, because I was worried I wouldn't see one for a very long time. I tried taking pictures from the angle I found it at, but it was backlit, and the camera was underexposing the owl...

I tried taking my camera out of auto ISO, manually changing the "ISO Speed" setting on my camera, and tried holding the camera as still as possible, holding by breath to reduce movement. Still, too bright, and too shaky...

I switched by camera back into auto ISO and decided to change angles, so that I was shooting the owl from it's belly side, with the dense, dark mat of pine branches in the background. I was finally able to get a few shots. One thing I love about shooting owls, is that their head follows you everywhere. 360 Degrees. You have to be insanely sneaky to get a photo of the back of an owl's head.

...I left. when I came back the next day, I started noticing large tree cavities everywhere. Perfect nesting sites for a barred owl...

                                         ...and hopefully i'll be able to find chicks this spring.