I Found The Snowy Owl! Using The Recent Sightings Reported In The Area As My Guide, I Went Driving Around

Back in May of 2022, we were out at the UW Madison Arboretum looking for Warblers. We came across a couple of older folks with binoculars staring intently into the trees, so I thought for sure they found a good one. But no! Turns out they had spotted this little guy.

[ID: A juvenile Barred Owl sleeps in the shade of a tree. It's mostly brown and fuzzy, with grey marks throughout and a browner "mask" around the eyes and beak. It's sitting on a large branch with a pair of slanted tree trunks on either side, and a few young green leaves framing the scene. End ID]

This is a baby Barred Owl, having a little snooze in the shade. They woke up briefly to look around and check us out, but they seemed perfectly content to sit in full view from the path as people jogged by and stopped to peek at them.

Folks, I have tracked down another Owl!

[ID: A Short-eared Owl sits on top of a wooden post at dusk. They stand about a foot tall, with rounded body and head, oval face, and no visible ear tufts. Their feathers are a lovely pattern of brown, tan, and cream, with white and tan face feathers radiating from a hooked black beak. They are staring directly into the camera with two large honey-colored eyes, rimmed in black feathers reminiscent of smoky eyeliner. End ID]

It was just about dusk at Goose Pond, and we were slowly driving down a road to the north of the pond, scanning the power poles and fields in the failing light. I'm driving, and I've got my friend in the passenger seat, the person who first got me into birding. I had seen reports of a pair of Short-eared Owls in the area, our last target bird on an afternoon of exploring Madison's lakes and fields. I had read that, unlike other Owls, Short-eared are known for coming out to hunt before sunset. She says there's something just over the horizon out her window, so I stop and we both get binoculars on it. I say, "It's owl-shaped! That has to be it!"

[ID: The Short-eared Owl sits on the same wooden post, looking left into the sunset. Just one eye is visible in profile, illuminated by the fading horizon. End ID]

The Owl is heading back the way we came, and I take just a single burst with the camera before swinging the car around. Then my friend sees a second one following it! One of them must have seen something because it lands in the field, while the other one heads off over the horizon. Once I have the car pointing the right direction, the first Owl takes off again and lands on the nest box in the pictures.

[ID: The Short-eared Owl sits on the same post and stares intently at the ground. Perhaps they see something to pounce on? End ID]

The next box is right by the road, so we start creeping up close. The Owl seems totally unbothered by our presence and just sits, patiently scanning the field. We creep closer, get a few more pictures, creep closer, get a few more, until we're like 25 yards away. By then we're close enough that the ID is unmistakable. Look at that makeup!

[The Short-eared Owl flies into the distance, headed away from the camera. Their wings are outstretched, gently riding the wind as they scan the field below for prey. End ID]

The Owl probably sat on the nest box for 15 minutes or more. Meanwhile, some other birders have pulled up behind us, clearly here to do the same thing. Not long after they show up, the Owl takes off again! This time we get to see them hunting up close. They clearly spotted something and dove down to catch it. I am not sure if they were successful, but they took off after a few minutes and continued flying lazily around the field, looking for more snacks. We stayed to watch the hunt until the sun had sunk below the horizon and the light began to fail, then made our way back down the road toward home. Hope you catch your fill, little friend!

[ID: The Short-eared Owl flies low over the field, with the sunset lighting up their silhouette from behind. They are a small figure in the lower third of the shot, with a background of brown grasses, evergreen trees, and blazing orange sky above. End ID]

Here's a bird that took me completely by surprise. (Content warning for a predator eating/carrying prey. I've put the more graphic pics below the cut.) Last week I was working at my dining room table, waiting for a plumber to show up. I glanced out the window and saw this Cooper's Hawk land on the neighbor's roof.

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk stands on the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's standing at the edge of the roof, looking off to the left. There are grey and black feathers scattered about, but the roof is blocking his prey from view. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

Of course, I immediately jumped up and grabbed my camera. Based on the smaller size and the bluish tint to the wings, I figure the Hawk was male. I noticed right away that he was bending down to pick apart and eat something. I couldn't tell what he was eating, but I could see lots of black and grey feathers scattered about.

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk stands on the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's standing at the edge of the roof, looking down at his prey and lifting one yellow foot with sharp, black talons. There are grey and black feathers scattered about, but the roof is blocking his prey from view. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

He stuck around for several minutes, which gave me some time to find a good position and adjust my settings to compensate for the overcast skies. (Picture me standing on a dining room chair, slightly crouched to line lens up with the top edge of the window.)

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk stands on the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's standing at the edge of the roof, looking down over the edge of the roof. There are grey and black feathers scattered about, but the roof is blocking his prey from view. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

Just as I was taking another burst, the Hawk did a little hop to get a better grip on his meal. Go ahead and scroll past this last photo if you'd rather not see the remains of what appears to be a Downy Woodpecker. All I knew in the moment was that I had held the shutter button through the whole sequence. It was only later while processing photos that I could make out enough detail on the prey for a possible ID.

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk is shown mid-hop in the air above the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's just flapped his wings to hop into the air and get a better grip on his prey. The prey appears to be the remains of a Downy Woodpecker, with the head and most of the upper body torn away. However, the remaining feathers appear to have the characteristic black and white pattern on the tail to suggest either a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker. There are grey and black feathers scattered about. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

Just after that, the Hawk flew off between the houses and was gone. It made me a little sad to think that one of our regular feeder visitors was now somebody's lunch, but it's somewhat comforting to think that our neighborhood must have a fairly healthy ecosystem. At least we have enough small birds and other prey around to convince the raptors to keep coming back to their favorite hunting grounds!

So it's this fan-created film preservation of the original Star Wars trilogy films. An English teacher named Petr Harmáček led a project with eight other fans to undo the various alterations made by Lucas in the 1997, 2004, and 2011 home video releases, calling the edits "an act of cultural vandalism". They used photoshop and rotoscoping techniques to

[ID: A pair of Tundra Swans are swimming on a pond close to one another. They are facing the camera and the Swan on the right is leaning close the one on the left and appears to be yelling right into their companion's ear. The Swan on the left appears to be staring into the middle distance, not necessarily listening. End ID]

owls from animal crossing new horizons

-bella

Over the summer, I decided I had reached a plateau in the quality of shots I could expect with my beginner DSLR (Canon EOS Rebel T7i). I messed around with a couple different mirrorless cameras and eventually landed on the Canon EOS R5. After renting one for a weekend, I was pretty well convinced that this was the camera for me.

I think this may have been the shot that sold me, though. I was wandering the paths at Pheasant Branch Conservancy and decided to sit for a moment at the end of the boardwalk leading to the river there. After a few minutes, I spotted something flying low over the river headed right toward me. I got her in frame just as she turned upward to find a perch in a tree on the bank.

[ID: A female Belted Kingfisher flies up and to the left with wings fully outstretched. She's in a sharp turn and looking up to find a perch out of the frame. She has a blue-grey head and wings, with a white body and alternating pattern of white and grey on the underside of her wings. She is clearly identified as female from the bright orange across her breast and orange patches in her wing pits. End ID]

I realized it was a female Belted Kingfisher only after reviewing the ten or so frames from that one burst shot. It wasn't my first time seeing this species, but it is surely my best capture of one to date. I would not have managed to pull focus so quickly or freeze the bird with that level of detail on my previous equipment. Being able to capture photos like this after only a few hours with the camera made it pretty clear that it was the right choice.

[ID: A Red-headed Woodpecker clings to the top of a dead tree limb. They are mostly black, with bright bands of white on their wings and a dark red (almost burgundy) head. They are looking off to the left with an acorn in their bill, likely looking for a new place to hide it. End ID]

Here's another more recent bird from the archives that I'm particularly proud of. It was our last day visiting Yellowstone Lake State Park in Wisconsin this past October. My partner and kid got out ahead of me because I had heard a call I didn't immediately recognize. It was a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers, collecting and caching fallen acorns. The adult above had stashed the acorn in their bill at the top of the dead tree, but they must have thought better of it when they noticed me spying on their hiding spot!

Northern Saw-whet Owl