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Hello all

Long-eared owls have taken up residence in my neighbor's wooded park. This one (like my land) is on the edge of a field, and has birch trees, large fir trees and larches; It is an ideal place for parents to hunt small rodents without moving too far from the nest and the little ones.

For several weeks I have heard them ululating from time to time; I looked for them but without success until this week. The juveniles are already able to fly, so they hide less, although the chicks still need the parents for food.

All photos were taken with the Sigma 150-600 "bazooka" on SL2, Monday 27th in the late afternoon for the juveniles, and Tuesday 28th in the late morning and early evening for the mother.

1) Juveniles, to start (I saw two):

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2) Crop on the first:

3) He removes the down on his paw:

To be followed...

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4) Shhhhuuuutttt!!! (it lacks a little clarity, but I like the posture)

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5) Filtered by the green foliage :::

6) Curious...

 

To be followed...

Edited by Bohns
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7) ...But not curious for too long. "Now stop, or I'll hex you!"

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So I stopped bothering them that day 😄

 

The next day, I captured the mother monitoring juveniles and intruders from the same branch. She was looking towards the sun, which was good for photos.

😎 Seen!

9) “Good. Not dangerous.” (this is the photo that I prefer; the egrets are well detached from the background, the position, the sharpness and the light are... Cool)

Last 3 photos in the next post.

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10) “Still there?”

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11) In the evening, she is always on the same branch. Scrolling vertically from the trunk of the birch tree:

12) Camouflage...


I will go back this evening, hoping to see the father feeding the juveniles. That would be the sherry on the cake, even if the photo is missed (I'm expecting very high ISO 🙃 )

Regards,
Stef.

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Hi,

Thank you to likers and visitors.

It's raining pretty hard tonight. It was not planned. So did not see dad-owl give mouse, shrew or other vole to one of his chicks...

 

As a side note to one of the moderators ( @jaapv ?) : could you please correct the tittle of the thread « long-eared owl and juveniles » ?

Regards,

Stef.

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On 5/31/2024 at 5:01 AM, stuny said:

They seem to. be great horned owls.  Lovely.

Hello and thank you. But definitely not.
Great-horned owl would be around 80 cm to 1 m tall head to tail, whereas long-eared owls are « only » 40 cm to 50 cm tall. Both are very similar but the size. The adult specimen of the photos is a lot less than 1 m and around 40 cm. Too small to be a great-horned 😉


I went back there yesterday evening and just now. I found (difficultly, only after one of them beat wings) the 2 juveniles in a fir tree, and the mother on another birch. I have some interesting photos (but no feeding) to process... And to post. 

 

Regards,

Stef.

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Good evening everyone 😁

I continued to go visit my new "neighbors" almost every day, being careful not to bother them (maximum 10 minutes each time, with at least 3 or 4 hours gap when I went twice in the same day). I think they got used to seeing me.

SL2 + "bazooka" 150-600. Photos taken on May 30th and May 31st.

13) Still on the same birch-tree branch

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14)

15) Probably one of my best 😉

16) Okay... He's still not threatening... I go back to sleep.



Next post to come...

Edited by Bohns
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17) Again filtered by the green foliage because of the wind

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The juveniles, now, on a fir tree. They are more difficult to observe and capture.
They had gained a lot of weight and lost almost all their white down; they had a few tufts of gray down left.

18) Friend or foe, with his big black nose???

19) He's behind my back now!


I still have around thirty photos taken between June 2 and 6, including beautiful portraits of the juveniles which let me get closer (or even which come closer themselves). I will post the best ones later-on.

Regards,

Stef.

Edited by Bohns
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  • jaapv changed the title to Long-eared Owl and juveniles

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