Thank goodness for nature's very own owl spotter, the ornery and noisy common crow. This one crow was making such a racket and flying from branch to branch. I thought owl at first but didn't think much about it because the crow was very low and owls usually perch high up.

I was about to leave but my natural curiosity got the best of me. I walked to a better vantage point to see what the crow was up to. Then I leaned a bit to the side not expecting to see much let alone an owl, just to see if anything was near the crow. Whoa! Sitting in the open on a branch about 20 to 30 feet off the ground was an adult Great Horned owl. I don't think I've ever seen one of the adult Great Horned owls perched this low before.

One does not let an opportunity like this go by without taking a few pics. Fired off a couple quick shots with the Canon 200 2.8L + TC 1.4x which happened to be on the camera at the time and then switched to the 400 5.6L for more reach. It was an overcast afternoon and being in the woods with the heavy canopy didn't help much with the light.

I was shooting in Aperture Priority and the owl was slightly backlit so I had to up the Exposure Compensation, thereby reducing further whatever shutter speed I was getting which wasn't much to begin with. Had left the monopod back in the car....oh well. But the shots came out quite good despite the shooting conditions.


Aperture-Priority, f/5.6, 1/250, EC +2/3, ISO 800 at 400mm.