Photographing The Gray Screech Owl At The Celery Bog

Last night with most sports cancelled I suddenly had a night off. I decided that with the sun popping out to spend a couple of hours at the Celery Bog. I was hoping to find this owl in the hole, but I also wanted to check out some of the migrating birds. I did find some migrating birds, but the star of the night was this screech owl that moved into the mouth of the hole just before sunset. It was another cool encounter with a screech owl at the Celery Bog. When this gray owl is in Ruby’s hole that usually means that she is taking care of some owlets. Last year I saw the parents and the owlets high up in the trees. This year it would be cool to see them at the mouth of this hole in the tree.

Four Seconds With The Screech Owl

At this point of the night the light had been gone for quite some time. I really wanted to try and keep the extender on my camera so that I could give this owl the space that it deserves. Because I was photographing at f/9 to get a clean exposure I needed to have my shutter open for four seconds. With a wild animal that is an eternity. Lucky this guy gave me the time that I needed for one frame. I wouldn’t recommend photographing birds with a four second shutter, but here it worked out. Sometimes it is to push the boundaries of what you should do.