Short Earred Owl w/vole and chase (warning)

[james thiel]

Bill Dewey (Retief) and I went up to the Skagit Flats on Saturday afternoon to see if we could find any SEO's. The sun was out and so we took the walk out into the field. After about an hour we had seen very little. Then a few owls started to fly. I kept my eye on one of the owls and then all of a sudden there were several owls and a couple of Harriers in the air. It looked like an old fashion WWI dog fight. We caught these with about a half hour left of sunlight. We got lucky and had the owls on the right side of the light. These are still pretty big crops all taken with the D800 and 500f4 w 1.4tc. The action seemed to have lasted for a long time but it was really only a couple of minutes.

1. Owl flying off with vole

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

2. The start of the battle. See the vole tail on the top owl.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

3. More of the chase

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

4. Yet another

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

5. The look

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

6. The release of the vole

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

7. The drop scared by female Harrier.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

8. The fly away

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[kodiak]

This is something I didn't know! …an owl scared by a bird its size!?!?!

Very good hunting James!

 

[bob friedman]

Cool. Wish I was there!

 

[Louis Champan]

Wow, what an exciting day you guy must have had Jim. Great set of photos.

 

[Retief]

Yeah, it was a pretty cool few minutes. I remember:

Jim: "Bill, the owl has a Vole!"
Me: "Which Owl, the one on the left??????"
Jim: (Ignoring me while he keeps his finger mashed on the shutte button

Jim, I see that you got the same "sky" look in some of yours as I did, it appears the WB did something a bit funny on some. I have been adjusting the Color Temp to make it look a bit nicer. That is quite cool that you caught that early shot of the SEO with the vole, I missed that one completely, but for some strange reason, I have a few that look surprisingly similar to yours.

Yesterday was not nearly as nice, glad we decided to go out on Saturday, for sure. Too bad for that fellow who decided to leave just before we started walking out to the field.

 

[Allan]

Great series James.

 

[james thiel]

Yeah, it was a pretty cool few minutes. I remember:

Jim: "Bill, the owl has a Vole!"
Me: "Which Owl, the one on the left??????"
Jim: (Ignoring me while he keeps his finger mashed on the shutte button

Jim, I see that you got the same "sky" look in some of yours as I did, it appears the WB did something a bit funny on some. I have been adjusting the Color Temp to make it look a bit nicer. That is quite cool that you caught that early shot of the SEO with the vole, I missed that one completely, but for some strange reason, I have a few that look surprisingly similar to yours.

Yesterday was not nearly as nice, glad we decided to go out on Saturday, for sure. Too bad for that fellow who decided to leave just before we started walking out to the field.

Bill Janice and I drove to Bellingham yesterday. It was nice early but not so great on our return. I played a little with the WB as well.

 

[cre8foru]

What a fantastic series. One of my favorite birds, Ive never seen by the way. We have them in certain areas here in Georgia but Ive never seen one.

 

[Redfish]

I love the series. I was fishing one day and watched a osprey chase and attack a mature bald eagle until the eagle dropped the fish it had caught. The chase last probably 3min plus, in the end the fish hit the water and neither bird come away with dinner. I which I would have had a camera beings as this all happened well with in camera range.

 

[alexf]

Great series!

 

[yifeng]

Beautiful shots, indeed!

 

[allmodcons]

Great series! I love to watch the shorties and harriers do battle around here. May favorite part of winter!

- Bill

 

[wind_walker]

What a great sequence of captures. I really like the interaction in #2. I've never had a chance to shoot these - I'm jealous!

 

[drr1531]

Great stuff, Jim. That's what paying the dues with hours in the field does for you. Buys you those few moments of something special every once in a while. Nice captures.

 

[siinjen]

Right time and place. Nice...

 

[Maxis Gamez]

Amazing series! Love it!