Yesterday was not the first time I’ve had a close encounter with a barred owl, but it was for sure the closest I’ve gotten in daylight without spooking this marvelous creature. Just for the heck of it, I got out the tape measure today to see how close I got – twelve linear feet between my camera and the tree where the owl was perched (see photo below – my footprints/kneeling prints to the left of the bird feeder with the owl perched in the pine tree).
The owl did not mind my presence one bit. I shot photos for over an hour and could have stayed longer. I only spooked the owl when I tried to move within ten feet and even then it flew to a nearby tree. The photos in the gallery below are the best of over a few hundred photos taken. I’m still not certain I got the settings I wanted. I tried various aperture settings as well as the camera’s auto feature. For some of the photos (none of those below), I used a skylight filter, which didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I’m hoping to shoot even crisper images than those below if I’m fortunate enough to have another close encounter this winter.
