I mentioned in the previous post that, after seeing the barred owl (Strix varia) family without a camera in hand, we may try to remedy that with another kayak excursion down there. However, yesterday I got busy on modifying the dock, and then the rains rolled in, so we never actually took the kayaks out.
Right around midnight, I was in the kitchen and heard the juvie call, and it sounded close – especially since I heard it through a closed double-pane window. Grabbed the camera and heavy flash, and with The Girlfriend’s help, determined that the owlets had missed us and come looking.
This is right in the tree outside the kitchen window, and these pics were all taken without leaving the deck. No question that they knew we were there and totally unconcerned about it. Seriously, who could ask for more?
Focus was manually obtained using the same flashlight that I use for night video, aimed by The Girlfriend – it wanders a little. These are both juveniles, evidenced by their behavior, their calling for food, and the baby down still visible here and there. They were busy preening one another while I was firing off frames.
A few days back, I realized that the focusing flashlight for Beav Team Six wouldn’t work anymore, since I’d modified the front grip for the telephoto lens, and started redesigning it, but hadn’t finished by this point, so I was extremely lucky that The Girlfriend was still awake and able to aim the light. With the telephoto lens, I had the better view of course, but they were still close enough that their behavior could be seen easily, though The Girlfriend cannot actually hear their calls.
Only the one on the right was calling, but doing so pretty regularly – I’m speculating that this is the younger of the two and more anxious the folks bringing food, but individual birds can easily have differences in personality (avianality,) so maybe this one is simply more vocal.
The preening is likely fostered by the growth of the new flight feathers. The feathers erupt covered in a sheath that supplies blood as they develop, but eventually sloughs away in flaky bits, which the birds help strip away – anyone that has had pet birds knows how much they like someone helping to clear this stuff off, so it probably itches a bit.
This is my favorite frame from the night, as one of them scratched its face, but it looks like it’s trying to duck the paparazzi. That is quite possibly a bit of the feather chaff flinging through the air over its head.
“Oh yeah – right there. That’s the stuff!”
No sign of the parents while we we watching, which is a shame, but I’m still not complaining. Especially when they stayed put as I switched to the camcorder (rather clumsily.)
Not the same reach as a 600mm lens of course, but adequate. The flashlight someone didn’t lock into the rig quite right, and it was wandering in aim, causing me to fumble with things more than I should have, but at least not too much noise came through. When the quiet, perhaps older one moved further off, the autofocus wanted to grab the leaves instead, and I briefly switched to manual and tried to lock on better, but the little LCD viewfinder isn’t really adequate for premium focus. The calls had greatly reduced in frequency by this time, but the vocal one still gave quite a few demonstrations of the flexibility of its neck as it looked for someone bringing food, or tried seeing what was going on better. That head-circling behavior is common among owls, permitting better depth-perception than just relying on the separation of their eyes, but probably also permitting depth-perception from their ears as well. Did you know owl ears are at two different heights on their skulls? This is presumed to assist with range-finding by sound
By the way, I’ve switched from the monopod to, believe it or not, a microphone stand, modified with an adapter for a small ballhead – the camcorder rig is light enough to permit this, so overall better than trying to do video with the SLR camera and long lens, which would have required a tripod to be set up. Someday, maybe technology will advance enough that a firm tripod could be carried collapsed under the lens mount, springing into shape with the press of a button to permit instantaneous steady shots. I still wouldn’t be able to afford one, but it would be nice to know someone could benefit…
Now, had we gone down and found them again from the kayaks, I would have been working in daylight, sure, but the maximum focal length of the waterproof camera is 140mm, I believe. The camcorder falls between 300 and 400, I’m estimating (equivalent, anyway,) and the Tamron telephoto used for the still images is 600mm. So, yeah, incredibly lucky to have had this opportunity, though I admit I’m considering putting down food to attract mice and such…