Male Short-eared Owl in flight with a stormy sky – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
This Short-eared Owl is very small in the frame and yet I couldn’t drag the file into my delete bin the day I took it nearly three years ago and I still can’t do it today. There is a story behind this image and I know that viewing this photo stirs my memories of the day I took it because of the back story but that isn’t the only reason I find this image appealing.
I love the darkness and the light in the stormy sky in the background, how well lit the Short-eared Owl was and the position of his wings in flight and I like that he is small in this frame because this is often the view that I and others have of these wonderful owls in the field. I appreciate every view I have of Short-eared Owls from a distance or closer up. To the naked eye this owl was simply a dinky speck in the sky.
To get this owl sharply in focus was no small feat considering how far away he actually was. Believe me, I wish my earlier images of him from that morning had been this sharp because it may have answered the questions I had about why this male Short-eared Owl and his mate had been aggressively dive bombing a coyote as it ran through grasses and sage on a hill in the distance.
That morning I had been photographing a pair of Long-billed Curlews when some movement in the distance caught my eyes and I could see the form of a coyote running with two owls diving at it. Once I was able to focus my lens on the coyote I could see that it was carrying something furry or fuzzy in its mouth and I took quite a few images of the coyote and the owls in a very long burst hoping to be able to see what it was that the coyote was carrying. Unfortunately for me there were heat waves that caused a great deal of distortion in those photos so I never could figure out what the coyote had grasped in its teeth. It was early April which is nesting season for the Short-eared Owls here in northern Utah and I suspect that the coyote may have snatched a chick from their nest but the owls could also have noticed the coyote carrying some other type of other prey close to their nest and may have been dive-bombing it in a joint effort to move the coyote away from their hidden nest. I will never know the answer to my questions about the behavior of those owls and what the coyote had in its mouth that morning no matter how I wish I could.
Once the owls chased the coyote away from their nesting area the female flew to a hill and disappeared at the base of a scraggly bush while the male flew high into the sky where a storm was brewing to the north which is when I took this photo.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Short-eared Owl photos plus facts and information about this species.
Even without your interesting narrative this photo tells more of a story than a “field guide” image..
Beautiful picture of the owl, and what a story. Hope every thing was good in the nest, but makes you wonder.
Owls are good.