A tasty morsel

Gallery: AvianPosted July 18, 2014209 views12 comments

This male Little owl was from last years broad and has now successfully reared three owlets, although the last one has not been seen for almost a week, but...

This earthworm he consumed himself, but has been frantically feeding the young almost 24/7 from the surrounding pasture fields & hedgerow, however these are packed with good proteins so the young are doing exceeding well and have almost fledged ready to start their own family next year, so another Conservation box will be going up to support them in due course this year.

Steve

Subject: Little owlet feeding on an earthworm (Athene noctua)
Location: UK
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 500mm f/4 Gitzo tripod/Uniqball head
Exposure: 1/800s at f/5.6 ISO1600
Original format: Landscape

Comments

12 comments

Comment posted by keith mitchell on July 18, 2014 at 8:01 AM

Steve the detail and quality on this is superb, raised foot pose and the earthworm are icing on the cake, it really is top class.

Cheers Keith.

Registered on July 12, 2008, 127 Posts, 1735 Comments

Comment posted by Martin Dunn on July 18, 2014 at 8:15 AM

Great capture Steve. Bags of detail and a subject so engrossed in what he (she?) is doing. The background works well to highlight the subject.
My only niggle is not about your photographic skills, it is about the placement of your watermark. It runs right across the centre of th eimage and is very distracting - to me anyway.

Registered on February 20, 2013, 198 Posts, 1011 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on July 18, 2014 at 8:22 AM

Martin, it's there for good reason, I have had many images 'lifted' so anything to deter.

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on July 18, 2014 at 8:40 AM

Nice image of the interaction. Lovely background and nice placement of the log. I too am distracted by the placement of the watermark. I understand your desire to not have images lifted, but the only way to prevent that is to never post them on the internet. I promise you, that with about a minute of Photoshop work I could remove that watermark anyway.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Jefferson Silva on July 18, 2014 at 4:52 PM

Very nice image, Stephen.
I liked the bird pose you captured here...

Registered on December 18, 2012, 162 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on July 18, 2014 at 10:13 PM

Love the pose and the behavior in this one Steve. I also wish your watermark wasn't right across the most interesting part of the image. I understand your reasoning on the watermark, but also agree with Keith...the only way to prevent it is to stop posting. I know that isn't what any of us want to hear, but it is reality. Nice work on this.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on July 19, 2014 at 3:29 AM

Whilst not denying that this image is "technically" OK it seems to me somewhat sterile especially the perch.
Was this taken in wild?
With regard to the watermark, where do your photos get stolen from and who uses them, I have found that most people are willing to pay, albeit a very small amount, in order to publish interesting images. But I mostly give mine away, any funds I receive are given to conservation.

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 19, 2014 at 1:42 PM

A wonderful pose, Steve, and a nice perch for it. The closed eye works for me in this instance-looks like he's savoring his dinner.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Jeroen Stel on July 19, 2014 at 5:07 PM

Lovely pose Steven and the earthworm really is a bonus.
Well done!

greetings,

Jeroen Stel

Registered on November 10, 2003, 366 Posts, 481 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on July 19, 2014 at 7:54 PM

Lovely work, both in image taking and post processing. I agree with the others on the placement of the watermark.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Stephen Kaluski on July 20, 2014 at 8:30 AM

Dennis, this is the male from last years brood who then had paired up this year to have three owlets of his own. The wooden fence has provided a good platform for both the adults & owlets to perch, run and feed on being almost directly under the Conservation owl box put up last year. So far two of the owlets have fledged successfully, the third is now in question, will leave it until late autumn before clearing out the box ready for next year. FYI whenever feeding they close their eyes, even passing food to the owlets, both close their eyes, they are like 'clam shells' coming together.

Jeroen I have been desperate to get them with the Peacock caterpillar, gives the appearance of a Mexican moustache.

Registered on March 25, 2007, 189 Posts, 1064 Comments

Comment posted by John Robinson on July 23, 2014 at 9:14 PM

Steve
I am a little confused - what is a "conservation" box as opposed to a "nest box ??
Cheers
JohnR

Registered on March 2, 2008, 535 Posts, 2453 Comments