{"id":44586,"date":"2017-01-25T06:57:32","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T13:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44586"},"modified":"2025-06-15T16:50:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T21:50:16","slug":"without-science-you-would-not-see-this-short-eared-owl-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/25\/without-science-you-would-not-see-this-short-eared-owl-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"Without Science You Would Not See This Short-eared Owl Photo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Without science you would not see this Short-eared Owl chick photo. You are here viewing it through a device using an internet connection to connect to a page housed on a server.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-148744 size-full\" title=\"Short-eared Owl chick tilting its head, Box Elder County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008.jpg\" alt=\"Short-eared Owl chick tilting its head, Box Elder County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Short-eared Owl chick tilting its head &#8211; Nikon D810, f10, 1\/500, ISO 320, -1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Without computer scientists there would be no devices, no internet, no server. Without science there would be no code to arrange all the tiny pixels this image consists of in the precise way it needs to be arranged so that you can see it on your device.<\/p>\n<p>Without scientists my camera would not exist. Without scientists and engineers working together my digital camera couldn&#8217;t connect and &#8220;talk&#8221; to my lenses and they have to in order to function properly. Without science there wouldn&#8217;t be a sensor in my camera to capture the light and convert what I saw through my viewfinder into the image that you see here. Without scientific calculations the glass in my lenses could not be ground to the exact specifications needed to bend the light to land on the sensor to create what I saw through my view finder.<\/p>\n<p>I am grossly over simplifying all of the science that goes into making a single digital image because honestly I don&#8217;t understand it all but I know that there are scientists and engineers who do.<\/p>\n<p>Without science and engineers working together I would have had to walk or ride a horse 90 miles to get this image. I wouldn&#8217;t have gotten to the location where I found this owl without the science behind automotive transportation or even the science and engineering it takes to build a highway.<\/p>\n<p>Without science I wouldn&#8217;t have been able to look up the weather forecast the day I took this photo which told me it was going to be bright and sunny and that forecast was the reason why I drove to where I did to find this subject and photograph it.<\/p>\n<p>Without science I wouldn&#8217;t know as much about my subject, this Short-eared Owl chick, as I do. Or any of my subjects really.<\/p>\n<p>Without science I might have died in 1996 without <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Arthur_Nobile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Arthur Nobile<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0 a microbiologist, who in the 1950&#8217;s discovered how to isolate and produce prednisone and without that scientific discovery I may have succumbed to an auto immune attack on my heart called pericarditis caused by Systemic lupus erythematosus. Those nasty tasting pills created by science probably saved my life or I wouldn&#8217;t have been where I was last May to see and photograph this Short-eared Owl chick. Many of us might not be alive today without scientific advancements in the field of medicine.<\/p>\n<p>The amount of science that is behind the creation and display of just this one image is absolutely mind blowing. But we\/I don&#8217;t often stop to think about that.<\/p>\n<p>Without scientists where would we be? You might wonder why I am writing today about the science behind my images. It is because scientists in the U.S. have come under attack recently and I want to do my small part in supporting them by showing that without science my images wouldn&#8217;t be taken, displayed or viewed. Science is with us every day of our lives. The people that really need to think about science and how it makes our lives better every single day are the ones that discredit it, impede it, malign it and pooh pooh it.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good. I can say that today and every day thanks to a scientist.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/short-eared-owl-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">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":"<p>Without science you would not see this Short-eared Owl chick photo. You are here viewing it through a device using an internet connection to connect to a page housed on a server.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148744,"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":[27,1148,130,26],"tags":[4114,4134,5630,4141,4067,4071,3967,294,2660,5629,5631,3971,10843,5197,1667,4193],"class_list":["post-44586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-short-eared-owls","category-utah","tag-asio-flammeus","tag-chick","tag-engineers","tag-fledgling","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-owl","tag-owls","tag-sagebrush-steppe","tag-science","tag-scientists","tag-short-eared-owl","tag-supporting-science","tag-tilted-head","tag-yellow-eyes","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-3008.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bB8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39708,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/05\/24\/northern-utah-short-eared-owl-chicks\/","url_meta":{"origin":44586,"position":0},"title":"Northern Utah Short-eared Owl Chicks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It felt amazing to be alone with these northern Utah Short-eared Owl chicks for a few brief moments yesterday.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Box Elder County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/box-elder-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Short-eared Owl chick in front of sage, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2817.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-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2817.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2817.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/short-eared-owl-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2817.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42843,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/10\/26\/photographing-short-eared-owls\/","url_meta":{"origin":44586,"position":1},"title":"Photographing Short-eared Owls &#8211; From Chicks to Adults","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This year was exceptional for photographing Short-eared Owls in Utah, Idaho and Montana and being able to see them in all the stages of their growth.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Beaverhead County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Beaverhead County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/beaverhead-county-montana\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fledgling Short-eared Owl lifting its wings, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-chick-stretch-mia-mcpherson-7142.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-chick-stretch-mia-mcpherson-7142.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-chick-stretch-mia-mcpherson-7142.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-chick-stretch-mia-mcpherson-7142.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":70015,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/05\/15\/sharing-sunrise-with-short-eared-owl-chicks\/","url_meta":{"origin":44586,"position":2},"title":"Sharing Sunrise With Short-eared Owl Chicks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I spent a few minutes photographing some of the cutest Short-eared Owl chicks that were just the width of a ditch away from the road that May morning.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunrise and a Short-eared Owl chick, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/short-eared-owl-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2682.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/short-eared-owl-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2682.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/short-eared-owl-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2682.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/short-eared-owl-chick-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-2682.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45243,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/02\/26\/nomadic-short-eared-owls\/","url_meta":{"origin":44586,"position":3},"title":"Nomadic Short-eared Owls","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Short-eared Owls are nomadic because they follow their main prey which is voles and if the vole population is low the Short-eared Owl density will also be low.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Short-eared Owl chick in early morning light, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-juvenile-road-side-mia-mcpherson-2797.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-juvenile-road-side-mia-mcpherson-2797.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-juvenile-road-side-mia-mcpherson-2797.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/short-eared-owl-juvenile-road-side-mia-mcpherson-2797.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54823,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/10\/31\/happy-howloween\/","url_meta":{"origin":44586,"position":4},"title":"Happy HOwloween","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Does this Short-eared Owl chick with bright yellow eyes look scary to you? It sure doesn't to me.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bright Yellow eyes of a Short-eared Owl chick, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2992.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2992.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2992.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/short-eared-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2992.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40017,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/06\/14\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-parallaxing\/","url_meta":{"origin":44586,"position":5},"title":"Short-eared Owl Fledgling Parallaxing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This Short-eared Owl fledgling spent a lot of time looking at the vehicle on the far side of the road parallaxing with its head tilted or bobbing up and down.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Parallaxing Short-eared Owl fledgling, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-parallaxing-mia-mcpherson-6692.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-parallaxing-mia-mcpherson-6692.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-parallaxing-mia-mcpherson-6692.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/short-eared-owl-fledgling-parallaxing-mia-mcpherson-6692.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\/44586","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=44586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}