{"id":38896,"date":"2016-04-27T06:08:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T12:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=38896"},"modified":"2025-06-15T12:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T17:03:07","slug":"the-day-my-short-eared-owl-obsession-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/04\/27\/the-day-my-short-eared-owl-obsession-began\/","title":{"rendered":"The Day My Short-eared Owl Obsession Began"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Short-earedShort-eared owl on post in low light at Bear River MBR – Nikon D200, f5.6, 1\/100, ISO 500, +.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Six years ago today I photographed my first Short-eared Owl in low light at Bear River MBR<\/span><\/a> and it was the day my obsession and fascination with these beautiful owls began. I’d seen them before but not through my viewfinder. Even though the light was low I was simply dying to get a few high quality images of this male as he sat perched on a wooden post next to the road and I was elated when that happened. Sure, that post isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as a natural perch, but it was a Short-eared Owl!<\/p>\n

\"Short-earedShort-eared Owl concentration – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 357mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The same year I found a Short-eared Owl nest and from a distance I was able to watch the male bring prey into the nest and watch the female feeding a chick. I was also able to experience 13 minutes of pure joy<\/span><\/a> when I observed and photographed the female owl above early on a foggy morning at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> in southwestern Montana. I took hundreds of images of her in that short 13 minutes while the fog and lake mist whirled around her as the sun rose. And each time I have passed the post this female owl was perched on… I have to smile. I can’t help myself.<\/p>\n

\"Short-earedShort-eared Owl looking for prey \u2013 Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/400, ISO 500, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This month I have had several opportunities to watch and photograph Short-eared Owls in northern Utah<\/a><\/span> and I couldn’t be happier. Okay, well maybe I could by seeing them every day instead of just a few times a month. This month I’ve photographed them hunting, perched on posts, dive bombing a coyote, seen males way off in the distance perform their aerial courtship display of wing clapping and enjoyed just being around them again. And the month isn’t over quite yet.<\/p>\n

\"Short-earedShort-eared Owl with a green field \u2013 Nikon D810, f8, 1\/400, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

All<\/em> birds fascinate me, all<\/em> birds fuel my passion (some might say addiction) for bird photography and I am truly obsessed with them all.\u00a0 <\/em>Today simply marks the day six years ago when my delightful obsession with photographing Short-eared Owls began on a dirt road at Bear River MBR.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Life with owls included is a hoot!<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Short-eared Owl photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Six years ago today I photographed my first Short-eared Owl in low light at Bear River MBR and it was the day my obsession and fascination with these beautiful owls began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,1513,1148,223,12,608,130,26],"tags":[4004,4114,4070,156,4062,12280,3967,294,4104,3971],"class_list":["post-38896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-beaverhead-county-montana","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-centennial-valley","category-montana","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge","category-short-eared-owls","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-asio-flammeus","tag-female","tag-low-light-2","tag-male","tag-obsession","tag-owl","tag-owls","tag-perched","tag-short-eared-owl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-grassy-field-mia-mcpherson-9185.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-a7m","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":71242,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/06\/26\/curious-short-eared-owl-fledgling-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":38896,"position":0},"title":"Curious Short-eared Owl Fledgling At Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I took quite a few photos of the fledgling Short-eared Owl that I had a clear view of and even though the lighting wasn't the best I was enchanted by the views I had of it.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Curious fledgling Short-eared Owl, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/short-eared-owl-chick-grasses-mia-mcpherson-4000.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/short-eared-owl-chick-grasses-mia-mcpherson-4000.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/short-eared-owl-chick-grasses-mia-mcpherson-4000.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/short-eared-owl-chick-grasses-mia-mcpherson-4000.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15063,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/05\/28\/male-short-eared-owl-in-evening-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":38896,"position":1},"title":"Male Short-eared Owl In Evening Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The nicknames for Short-eared Owls are many and include Evening Owl, Mouse-hawk, Marsh Owl, Bog Owl and Flat-faced Owl but I just call them Shorties in the field.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Short-eared Owl in evening light in flight over a marsh, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Centennial Valley, Beaverhead County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-8254.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-male-flight-mia-mcpherson-8254.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Short-eared Owl photographed in a lake fog","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/short-eared-owl-female-thumbnail-mia-mcpherson-8624.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/short-eared-owl-female-thumbnail-mia-mcpherson-8624.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/short-eared-owl-female-thumbnail-mia-mcpherson-8624.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6124,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/09\/16\/male-short-eared-owl-in-low-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":38896,"position":3},"title":"Male Short-eared Owl in low light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't always get what I want though; for example, I wanted this male Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) I photographed at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Montana in good light.","rel":"","context":"In "Beaverhead County"","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male Short-eared Owl in flight, Red Rock Lakes NWR, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/short-eared-owl-male-mia-mcpherson-redited-8732.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/short-eared-owl-male-mia-mcpherson-redited-8732.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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I spend a lot of time in areas where there is sagebrush dotting the desert, steppes and hillsides here in Utah and I find these amazing owls there.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Short-eared Owl in Sagebrush Country, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-sagebrush-mia-mcpherson-1150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-sagebrush-mia-mcpherson-1150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-sagebrush-mia-mcpherson-1150.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-sagebrush-mia-mcpherson-1150.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}