From Harold Wilion

Make Friends

Thank God for friends. If it wasn’t for them, it’s possible I might never have even seen a Screech owl in my entire life, let alone be able to photograph them so often. I learned of the red Screech I posted yesterday (see below!) from one friend, and another friend shared this one with me yesterday. I think the last time I saw a gray morph was last autumn, so it was a thrill to finally see one again after so long. And lucky to catch him with a touch of fall color.

Tough getting sharp shots because he’s probably the highest Screech I’ve shot, necessitating a low ISO to minimize noise and maximize sharpness considering the magnification. And the fact that after he pops up, he does a lot of moving and trilling, my 1/3 sec shutter didn’t do the best job of freezing the motion on the shots I liked most, but I’m ok with this one when he paused his trilling for a few seconds.

As usual, I have to give a big shout out to a buddy of mine that found this owl. I’ve been totally obsessed with it since I heard about it a few days ago. I hope he sticks around for a while to explore more angles, but it’s not easy as one has to find small holes through the branches and foliage to shoot through. But for now, this will be my new Screech owl hangout till he either leaves, or the Screeches at my old standby location start behaving better and hopefully become easier to find as the leaves drop. And the nice thing about this little guy is, he flies when there is still some light. But getting him after he leaves the nest is certainly not an easy task.