WC# 188 - My Buddy

This week's challenge has given me a chance to share a photo of one of my favorite owl buddies! This was taken last March east of Orillia, Ontario. This fellow was perched on a telephone pole. I held my telephoto on him for at least 20-30 minutes and all he would do was stare at me, not fly down and start hunting. Finally I was freezing and he needed to eat so I withdrew my camera. The instant I drew my camera in, he swooped off, across the hood of my car and landed on a fence post about 15 feet outside my passenger window. He had decided that I was more interesting than hunting! I rolled down the window and struggled to prop the telephoto lens and proceeded to take shots of him. He stared at me for about 10 minutes, then flew back up to his perch to look for dinner. I drove off and let him hunt. What an amazing and glorias bird.

This shot is full frame at 320mm. (correction - I originally thought this was shot with the telephoto reduced) I do have a few other shots where I had the presense of mind to reduce the FL.