Female Northern Hawk Owl

Gallery: AvianPosted March 27, 2011130 views6 comments

My dad and I just got back from a trip to Wisconsin, and on the way we got to go to the Sax-Zim Bog in Minnesota (thank you to Steve Foss for recommending this)! We drove through the night and napped until dawn hoping to see some Great Gray Owls without much luck. After driving around in the bog for a while we asked someone if they had seen any owls, and they told us that there had recently been a pair of Northern Hawk Owls just down the road. We were driving around looking for them when we spotted the female perched on a tree. Someone told us that the day before she had come down from her perch and snatched a vole only a few feet away from the crowd that had gathered!

This picture was actually taken on the second day of our trip there because she chose better perches that day. I will post a picture of the male later on, but I did add him to my portfolio, along with a few others. As you can tell it was mixed rain and snow when I took this picture, and I liked how it made her wet feathers look. I also really liked the look of the tamarack tree branches and all the moss...we don't have tamaracks where I live and my dad and I kept saying they make for very photogenic owl perches!

Nikon D300
Nikkor 300mm f/4 AF-S with 1.4x TC
ISO 450
1/320sec @ f/5.6

cropped to about 75% of original

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Alan Murphy on March 27, 2011 at 6:31 PM

Love the setting. Wish the sky had some color. I would make the bird a bit lower in the frame.

Registered on December 3, 2003, 192 Posts, 739 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on March 27, 2011 at 6:41 PM

Thank you, Alan! We were hoping for some more interesting skies, too, but only had wet, gray weather while we were there. I chose to compose and crop the picture this way with the owl higher than "normal" to emphasize height, especially because Northern Hawk Owls are famous for perching at the top of trees (or very high in them) to dive down on their prey like a hawk. My picture of the male has him lower, though, because it worked better that way in that image I thought.

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on March 27, 2011 at 6:42 PM

Nice image - very natural looking.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on March 27, 2011 at 8:57 PM

Jenaya, I like the high composition. It really does make it seem like the owl is way up in a tree. I also like how there's some mimicry between the textures in her wet feathers and the mosses on the tree.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on March 29, 2011 at 9:29 AM

What a beautiful composition Jenaya! I really don't think I would have ever even thought to set the subject so far up in the frame, but seeing it like this really opens my eyes even further to the possibilities of interesting compositions that stray from the more usual, thanks for the inspiration :^)

Oh Wow! I just clicked on the large version! 8^) This really is a stunning image ... really makes me wonder why more people haven't commented on this one ... I guess they're simply speechless with admiration ;^)

I really think you've done great justice to the beauty of this Lady Northern Hawk Owl; the sharpness in detail and the richness in colour are full of appeal, eye-candy one might say ;^) I also love the way the bark and moss on the tree complement her so well. While a nice blue sky for a background might have been a bonus, better to have it as you have in stark white contrast than any shade of grey IMO; the way it is gives it a real artistic finish to my eye.

In summary: I absolutely love this one Jenaya and very much looking forward to seeing more of your work in days, weeks, and months ahead :^)

All the best,

Ashley

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Jenaya Launstein on March 29, 2011 at 1:59 PM

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm glad you liked it so much!

She was perched here for a while (at least 30 minutes), and didn't mind us photographing her while she was there. We had photographed her for a long time the previous day, and when we saw her the next day (the day I took this picture) we decided to photograph her a little more as we liked her perch and the look of her feathers better.

It was awesome to watch her sit there, look at us, and then call to her mate!

Registered on February 8, 2011, 254 Posts, 1302 Comments