Three Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) chicks sat in a nest about twenty-five feet above a wide path in Claremont Canyon right above the Claremont Hotel in Oakland, California. While I was there, Mom and Dad hovered higher up in nearby trees.
The nest had been there for about a month, and was pretty well-known locally. I climbed up the hillside and spent the afternoon looking straight across at the chicks. In the hours I spent before it got too dark to photograph, there was a real social scene with bird lovers and photographers checking in. Some of these people visited the owls daily.
Great Horned Owl Chicks, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
These "babies" were surprisingly large, perhaps a cat is a good comparison size-wise. As you can see, there was quite a range of size in the siblings, with the one in front much smaller than the other two. They seemed to interact well with each other, engaging in mutual grooming, and nuzzling each other. They slept for much of the afternoon.
Looking at the antics of the clutch, I could help thinking of my three kids. Owls, humans, what's the difference?
Great Horned Owls are at the top of their food chain. With essentially no predators, and a social crowd of humans with their dogs around much of the time, these owls were not shy. The only real tricks from a photographer's viewpoint were to get close enough, and have the patience to wait for the right moment (in this shot with all three looking generally in my direction).
[Nikon D300, 80-200mm VR zoom lens with 2X telexender at 400mm (600mm in 35mm terms), 1/250 of a second at f/5.6 and ISO 320, tripod mounted.]
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Photography
Comments (2)
Read More Entries by Harold Davis.
Yes, Mihalis the 70-200mm VR it is :-)
Your lens must be either 80-200mm or 70-200mm VR. I hope that it is the 70-200mm VR :)
Mihalis.