The Tale of the Eastern Screech Owl (Six photographs)

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You have to admire the nature photographers who go out and shoot owls wide-eyed in daylight against perfect backgrounds. We were talking to some friends when one pointed out that there was a screech owl behind us and off we went like lightening. The photographs from that episode are the ones where all you see is its face, not surprisingly they are backlit etc. Exposure and focus were an issue. You can see the wink, the closed eyes and my attempt at a side view. When we returned the following day, the owl had moved to another tree, but was now besieged by a larger crowd of bystanders and photographers, all waiting for it to wake up and show its bright yellow irises. The owl was now just barely out of the hole and more prominent. After a long wait I figured it was not going to wake up and the backlighting was only getting worse. Others figured out the same thing and the crowd thinned out. Owls are relatively rare birds where I am and I will jump at any chance to photograph them. We went back the next week, this time with my new D7200. All of the shots are cropped significantly but one of the shots was taken at 1000 ISO. This was a test to see what was possible and I am very pleased.