{"id":113755,"date":"2023-06-12T01:09:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T07:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=113755"},"modified":"2023-07-03T08:43:11","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:43:11","slug":"roadside-fledgling-barred-owl-with-a-crawdad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/06\/12\/roadside-fledgling-barred-owl-with-a-crawdad\/","title":{"rendered":"Roadside Fledgling Barred Owl With A Crawdad"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an amazing story behind this photo of a fledgling Barred Owl with a crawdad, photographed at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> in Oklahoma. Pull up a seat, sit for a bit, and I will tell you about it.<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Barred Owl with a crawdad \u2013 Canon R7, f8, 1\/800, ISO 12800, +1.0 EV,Canon Canon RF 100-500 mm at 500m, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

After Steve Creek<\/span><\/a> and I found not one, but three Barred Owls while driving around the refuge in search of birds and animals, something wonderful happened. The owls also taught us more about their parenting behaviors with their young at this age.<\/p>\n

There was one young Barred Owl and two adults. At first, we only saw one adult owl perched high on a dead branch of a tree on the left side of the road. Not long after seeing and photographing the adult owl, the young bird showed up and landed in the middle of the road. I took photos of the fledgling Barred Owl parallaxing on the gravel road. That is about the time the second adult flew past us and landed somewhere behind where Steve had parked his pickup truck.<\/p>\n

The adult owl flew from the left side of the road to the right and landed in a dead, vine-covered tree, and the young owl soon followed it and landed on another branch just a few feet from its parent.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Just moments later, the adult owl swooped down from the tree towards the right side of the road. Both Steve and I saw a crawdad at the edge of the road, below where the adult owl had flown. A minute or so later, the adult owl flew over the crawdad again without trying to grab it.<\/p>\n

By then, Steve and I were wondering why the adult hadn’t simply snatched the crawdad up when it had been so close. Then it dawned on us that the adult owl was showing the young owl where the crawdad was and teaching it how to hunt.<\/p>\n

The adult Barred Owl made one final pass over the crawdad. Steve and I held our breath and watched as the young owl left the tree and pounced on the crawdad. It was not long after the pounce that I took this image.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

I didn’t have much light when I photographed the owls and my ISO was higher than I would have liked it to be. But the image itself and what I witnessed yesterday morning will remain forever etched into my memories. It was magical. Magic is all around us, we only need to look for it.<\/p>\n

Great birds plus wonderful company equals a terrific day.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Barred Owl photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an amazing story behind this photo of a fledgling Barred Owl with a crawdad, photographed at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3755,27,13973,13974],"tags":[5772,3756,13985,13984,2545,2544,4141,4067,3967,294,5300,165,3757,4095,4193],"class_list":["post-113755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barred-owls","category-avian","category-oklahoma","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-baby","tag-barred-owl","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forests","tag-bottomlands","tag-crawdad","tag-crayfish","tag-fledgling","tag-immature","tag-owl","tag-owls","tag-roadside","tag-spring","tag-strix-varia","tag-wetlands","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-baby-with-crawdad-mia-mcpherson-2274.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-tAL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":113769,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/06\/13\/young-barred-owl-at-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge\/","url_meta":{"origin":113755,"position":0},"title":"Young Barred Owl At Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 13, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the same young Barred Owl that I shared in my post yesterday which was photographed at Sequoya National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "Barred Owls"","block_context":{"text":"Barred Owls","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/owls\/barred-owls\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Barred Owl in a road, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-fledgling-at-sequoyah-NWR-mia-mcphrson-2031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-fledgling-at-sequoyah-NWR-mia-mcphrson-2031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-fledgling-at-sequoyah-NWR-mia-mcphrson-2031.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-fledgling-at-sequoyah-NWR-mia-mcphrson-2031.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115697,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/07\/i-heard-barred-owl-calls-last-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":113755,"position":1},"title":"I Heard Barred Owl Calls Last Night","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, around 9 p.m., I listened to Barred Owl calls. Before Utah birders get excited, I heard those calls courtesy of my niece, Kristal, from Virginia.","rel":"","context":"In "Barred Owls"","block_context":{"text":"Barred Owls","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/owls\/barred-owls\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Barred Owl at Sequoyah NWR, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/barred-owl-baby-roadside-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2188.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/barred-owl-baby-roadside-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2188.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/barred-owl-baby-roadside-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2188.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/barred-owl-baby-roadside-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2188.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":141974,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/03\/24\/spring-barred-owl-in-a-spindly-tree\/","url_meta":{"origin":113755,"position":2},"title":"Spring Barred Owl In A Spindly Tree","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm keeping it simple today since I shared two posts yesterday. I photographed this Barred Owl two days ago at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Barred Owls"","block_context":{"text":"Barred Owls","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/owls\/barred-owls\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Barred Owl in a spindly tree, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/barred-owl-adult-tree-mia-mcpherson-8836.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/barred-owl-adult-tree-mia-mcpherson-8836.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/barred-owl-adult-tree-mia-mcpherson-8836.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/barred-owl-adult-tree-mia-mcpherson-8836.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":113940,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/06\/24\/adult-barred-owl-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":113755,"position":3},"title":"Adult Barred Owl At Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this adult Barred Owl in nice light yesterday morning at Sequoyah NWR in Oklahoma. Huge thanks to Steve Creek for pointing it out to me.","rel":"","context":"In "Barred Owls"","block_context":{"text":"Barred Owls","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/owls\/barred-owls\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Barred Owl in a willow, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-adult-willow-tree-mia-mcpherson-3781.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-adult-willow-tree-mia-mcpherson-3781.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-adult-willow-tree-mia-mcpherson-3781.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/barred-owl-adult-willow-tree-mia-mcpherson-3781.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":127064,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/04\/03\/save-owls-by-not-using-rodent-poisons\/","url_meta":{"origin":113755,"position":4},"title":"Save Owls By Not Using Rodent Poisons","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Since spring's arrival, people will be spending time outdoors, and more people will be seeing rats in their yards and gardens. 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