Great Gray Owls

[Len Backus]

Crow mag's Barred Owls reminded me of my trip to northern Minnesota 2 winters ago. There was an irruption of owls, pushed south from Canada by a shortage of natural food, namely small rodents. Jack and I spent 3 days there. Each morning it was 40 degrees below when we left the motel in the dark. It never got above 20 below during the day.









Being compassionate fellows, during a mid-day lull we drove 40 miles to a Petco store to buy some food for the owls. Coincidentally, this helped our photo efforts tremendously.

[Ian M]

Len,
You nailed that shot of the bird coming straight at the camera, wings out stretched. Great job. They are all fine images, you have a touch.
Thanks for sharing.

[jeffbird]

Did you use live or frozen snacks?

[yotefever]

Great pics Len.
I remember that year, I didn't do any distress calls at night, all you heard were owls in all directions. I didn't want any to come down and visit me. So I just howled away [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Does your camera have a delay from when you snap the button to when the pic is actually taken? Sure does make getting action shots tuff with these digital cameras.
Hope you don't mind if I post a couple of pics from last week. One is an action shot the other an after shot shot.

[Mountainsheep]

Very impressive pictures! Thanks for sharing

Dave

[Triggernosis]

Len,
Wow on those grey owl pix. Those grey owls look like "old men of the forest" to me.

[coupalr]

There are more Snowy owls and Barn owls up here this year than I have seen in a few years.

Those are some great pictures.