{"id":56354,"date":"2019-02-28T06:46:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T13:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=56354"},"modified":"2023-02-28T06:45:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T13:45:30","slug":"short-eared-owl-with-a-stormy-sky-small-in-the-frame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/02\/28\/short-eared-owl-with-a-stormy-sky-small-in-the-frame\/","title":{"rendered":"Short-eared Owl With A Stormy Sky – Small In The Frame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale Short-eared Owl in flight with a stormy sky \u2013 Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/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":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1148,130,26],"tags":[4004,4114,4101,4052,4062,3967,294,3971,4018,4043,4500,4197],"class_list":["post-56354","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-adult","tag-asio-flammeus","tag-clouds","tag-flight","tag-male","tag-owl","tag-owls","tag-short-eared-owl","tag-sky","tag-small-in-frame","tag-storm","tag-stormy-sky"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t