Bird Photography

[CDN_Merlin]

As you know I love bird photography. Well, here's an interesting story. I woke up at 3am today because my daughter was going to bed and made noise in the bathroom. So after failing to fall back asleep at 3:45, I decided to get up. I have to work today so there was no choice anyways. At 5am, I decided to go out and start my journey to work. I live in a condo area. As I walked out of my unit to go to my car, I looked left as I caught a huge white bird taking off. My eyes knew right away what it was but my mind would not believe it. They are not supposed to be in the city. As the shock wore off a bit I knew I had watched a Snowy Owl fly by. Then within seconds, a rabbit ran across the street.

I ran to the end of my condo unit and turned in the direction of where it flew. I noticed it had landed on the roof of the house behind my condo. I ran home, grabbed my camera and opened my patio door. I was able to get 1 decent shot (not great really in pitch darkness but oh well) and decided to go outside and see if I could get a better shot from in front of the house. But sadly as I turned the corner, he decided to fly off.

I love owls and snowy owls are awesome. With a wingspan of 6' plus they are magnificent birds to see fly and in all honesty, they do not make any noise when flapping.

I will post the pic tonight when I get home from work but I'm still in shock and awe.

[sigma]

Where photo , Merlin? It was very interesting to watch.
I can say that in the vicinity of our home country every year , there are many different animals. If sown wheat fields around , so there is a lot of field mice . So in the fall will be a lot of hawks and owls . Sometimes, for some unknown reason , there are many deer and elk . So , in the winter will be a lot of wolves. Sometimes it's a lot of rabbits and foxes. Sometimes there is no one at all. They come from other areas. Near our village is a lake . I often fish in it. We found a lot of carp and perch . Sometimes on a weekday when people are not on the lake, you can see herons , otter , weasel . It is a real pleasure to sit quietly with a fishing rod and observe the life of wild animals. Sometimes we arrives many ducks . Then you can shoot five or six ducks. I do not shoot herons . They are too beautiful . And it all happens in 30 kilometers from Moscow.
I'm more interested in another question. I still can not explain. why tomtits beat in glass windows before bereavement . This is a known national sign , but tomtits repeatedly fought in the window and a country house , and our apartment in Moscow. And the apartment is on the 20th floor of a tall building . Six months later, I have a close relative died . I can not explain it until now.

[flip]

Yes, definitely post photo. I was lucky enough one time to see a Bald Eagle swoop down and snatch a fish out of the Etowah river. No camera sadly but something majestic to see!

[CDN_Merlin]

The pic is not great. It was pitch black and my auto focus wouldn't work with it. I had to manually focus and snap a pic. I am going Snowy owl Pic hunting sunday with my dad and will post those pics for sure.

[Sergeant Thorne]

Cool!

[Tunnelcat]

Damn, you've got me interested. I'm going to have to get some pics of the Bald Eagles that soar on the thermals over my neighborhood in the summer.

[CDN_Merlin]

Here are 2 pics from today's outing but 45 min from my house.

[dissent]

Nice shots Merlin. You're way ahead of me. I keep hearing the owls, but I can't seem to get any in range of my eyeballs, let alone my camera.

[CDN_Merlin]

I'm on a bird email list and on 2 in FB so I get others to find them for me.

[Alter-Fox]

He's beautiful.
(Or she... is there a way to tell with snowy owls? Not by plumage obviously... )

I do some birdwatching occasionally but not as a real hobby. I've always found ravens very interesting. On long road trips wildlife-watching is my main passtime.

[CDN_Merlin]

Juvi's and females have more brown streaks. Adult males are mostly white. About the only way to tell.

[woodchip]

I have some pics my dad had from back in WI. First two shows him holding some dead Hungarian partridges that the state of Wisconsin was trying to establish. Third pic is of state game wardens holding 2 adult and 2 juvenile Snowy Owls that they shot as the culprits of killing partridges. That was prolly back in early fifty's and it is interesting how Snowy Owls were looked upon back then.

[sigma]

Great shots!
In the vicinity of our country house three years ago, it was very much like these owls. They hunt for mice in the fields. Moreover, these owls are not typical of the surrounding area of Moscow. Therefore, it was amazing.

not my photo

[CDN_Merlin]

I don't recognize that owl but it's nice. I really love owls. Actually I love predatory birds.

[woodchip]

With the black banding around the face, I'd say sigmas owl is the Northern Hawk-Owl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hawk-Owl