Spent a fantastic day with a few friends last week to go see the Barred Owls in Brighton, Ontario.
We left nice and early and arrived to find that the first snowfall of the area had hit the night before. Perfect!
I spotted the first Barred Owl in a marshy area about 10 feet off the road. We took some shots but the lighting was terrible and lots of branches in the way. Then she flushed from her perch and flew back into an area with wonderful light and beautiful surroundings. After photographing her for a while, she appeared tired and that was our cue to leave her in peace and head off to lunch.
When we came back to the park we searched for more of the Owls and came across the same one again. She spend some time hunting and actually caught a vole about 5 feet in front of us, which was thrilling to watch. She took it back into the woods about 20 feet and I followed, getting some shots of her swallowing the vole.
It had been a long day without much sleep the night before, so we packed up and got into the truck to leave. And the Owl flew out of the woods and landed in a tree right beside the truck. So we unpacked, got the tripods extended again and continued shooting.
The whole day I thought we were watching her, but it would seem like the photographers were the ones being stalked and watched.