- NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D500
- 500.0 mm f/4.0
- ƒ/6.3
- 700mm
- 1/3200s
- ISO 640
- Jack Backs
- 39.14615735
- -90.746725116667
- Fri, 04 December 2020 5:08 PM
- Copyright 2020 Jack Backs, All rights reserved.
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 10.0 (Windows)
I found this Snowy Owl a couple weeks ago, quite rare this far south in mid-eastern Missouri. They're a little more commonly found in mid Illinois as the terrain is flatter than the rolling hills here.
This was in the Mississippi river flood plain where there is a couple miles of flat, open fields in all directions...a little closer to their normal habitat I suppose. Unfortunately the bird was perched on
a butt ugly power line insulator. I started out taking some images from my car window, then cautiously got out of the vehicle and took some images handheld. I eventually went back and got my
tripod as it was evident that the bird was not concerned about my presence..so much so that it would not look at me directly even when I was moving around. This image was as close as I got to
both eyes open and illuminated. It couldn't have been more than a half hour before sunset so I'm surprised half the eyes are shaded. I suppose it's because of the relative steep angle I was shooting
at. I kept taking images until the sun set. I returned the next morning and it had moved to an even uglier powerline cross member perch and still wouldn't look at me. I left to pursue Northern harrier
images elsewhere. I gave a heads up on the location to a pretty good photographer Facebook friend from a Missouri Birders forum. I return a couple hours later to see if it had moved (it had not) and
found three cars parked around it. They were holding back back because they were expecting more people. A few images were posted quickly and by that afternoon there probably a dozen people
searching for it, and by the next day apparently half the birders in St Louis metropolitan area were scouring the area for the bird. It was a heavy overcast day and I hadn't planned to go out anyway.
The bird disappeared for a few days but was eventually relocated sitting in an open field. The land owner told them that it had been sitting in the same spot for the last couple of days. They apparently
captured the the bird with little effort and took it to a rapture rehab center. Unfortunately the bird died a couple days later. Sorry for the rambling narrative. The left eye was actually even more shaded,
I flipped the right eye and cloned some of it to the left.
Nikon D500, 500mmF4VRII, TC-14EIII
f6.3, 1/3200s, iso640
