Short-eared Owl

This male has a fight on his hands. Two males were competing for a female (who calmly watched the whole thing) by sky dancing, wing clapping and repeated attacks on each other. Their antics were so erratic and quick that it was very difficult to photograph. In this image the other owl had rocketed in at this bird while it was on the ground. At the last second this bird popped up off the ground and turned upside down to present its talons defensively. This was taken just after the other bird had passed above and to the right and this owl was beginning to right itself again.

It took a large crop to get the owl even this large in the frame and the leading edge of the left wing is a little bright but I still liked the shot, largely because of the unusual flight posture with a good look at the eye.

More images of this fighting behavior on my blog if you're interested.

7D, 1/1600, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, shot from pickup window on 6/14/11 in southwest Montana, cropped to 43% of original image, small exposure adjustment in ACR, NR to background (due to large crop), sharpened bird, no additional processing or adjustments, natural light, not set up or baited

Larger version provided

Comments/critique appreciated