More catch-up -- Owl Show

[eregyrn]

Yes, yes, still behind. Have some owl pictures from June!





So, in early June, elishavah and I went to the Mass Audubon Nature Festival at Ipswich, which featured an owl show by Eyes on Owls. I saw them (and I think I posted about them) last year as well, but have a better camera this year. Also this year, they put up a white tent for the show, instead of a yellow tent -- made a big difference to the light quality.

So first, there was a screech owl.



Actually, there were TWO screech owls, one grey, and one red (above), but this was the one I got a good picture of.

Then there was the grumpiest-looking saw-whet owl in the world:



This owl is 13 or 14 years old, apparently. What a grumpy little old man! Mind you, the UPPER life expectancy for saw-whets in the wild is like 6-7 years. I asked later, and the handlers said that they knew someone once who had a saw-whet in captivity who lived to 18 years!

There was also a barred owl, and a great horned owl with one eye, but my pics of them didn't come out that well.

Then we got to the snowy owl (male):



For some reason, my camera just did NOT want to auto-focus on him. I'm not sure why. It didn't like his white feathers in the low-contrast light? Or something.





FUZZY FEET!

Then we got the European eagle owl (also seen above), who is like twice the size of even a great horned owl:





Just a gorgeous, gorgeous bird.

This one is worth clicking through for the largest size, to see the details in the feather and the eyes:




There was also a spectacled owl, which is a Central American species, but my pics of that one didn't come out that well either.

After the owls, we went on a short walk around the sanctuary's pond, and enjoyed some late-spring nature.

Rhododendrons:








Forget-me-nots:




Turtle! (there were a fair number of turtles)





Next time: the USS Constitution (I promise!), and a trip to the Jersey shore. (Not THAT Jersey Shore. I swear.)

Comments

[troyswann.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, great photos. The snowy owl is kind of freaky looking, like someone accidentally burned out the image on the highlight end. His eyes are so, so yellow. Very cool.

And the flower pics are really beautiful too. The forget-me-nots just seem to float. Lovely!

(the autofocus thing: I had the same problem on the river--could not get a decent autofocus on the glaciers and the mist. Autofocus has a hard time with low-contrast monochrome, for sure. Very frustrating. There's something kind of Word-ish about it, in that I want to shout at the machine, "Stop helping me!" :)

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Yes! I like the autofocus most times, but sometimes it just goes nutty. To be honest, I don't remember noticing this on the older model (same brand) I had. (I think we both now have the same model, unless you've upgraded.)

The snowy owl's expression says to me, "the lights are on, but nobody's home". Possibly this is unfair. And over-anthropomorphizing, but owls are really fun to anthropomorphize.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I want to hug all of those owls. o_o I need to get my snowy owl plush out storage and give it a few hugs.

The flowers are beautiful too! and yay turtle.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

They would... PROBABLY not want to hug you. You never know. Some owls are weird. (You remember some of Lyosha's stories.)

[discodiva76.livejournal.com]

WOW!!...your shots are amazing!....and those owls are simply gorgeous....thank you for sharing...


Deeds xx

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

I love how healthy and awake the owls all look. Most of the owl pictures I've seen lately have been from http://hungoverowls.tumblr.com/. So now I have the unsophisticated urge to give all your owl pictures captions like, "I just had orange juice. I told you to drink more water!" and (for that ravishing eagle owl) "I don't need to party - I AM the party. Got up early to lift, dude. Check out these pecs!"

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I'm addicted to that tumblr! It's true, many of them look a bit worse for wear... although I think the saw-whet above would fit right in. (My icon picture has been used by them before, although I had it before that.)

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Oooh, owls! Great photos, love the flowers too, but that last owl shot is my favorite.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I confess, I believe that was when the owl was literally 3 feet away from me. So it wasn't so much of a challenge. ;-)

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Ah, you still get credit. Still, proximity is a cool thing. ;)

[keiko-kirin.livejournal.com]

Beautiful owls! Wow, the details on the European eagle owl are amazing. Great photos! Thank you for sharing them. (Cute turtle, too. :))

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I was pleased that I got such detail on the eagle owl close-up. Just gorgeous creatures. :)

[wadjet-theperv.livejournal.com]

What fabulous photos! And all absolutely gorgeous :o) Thanks for sharing.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You're welcome. :)

[leelastarsky.livejournal.com]

What stunning photos! Thankyou so much for sharing!!

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You're welcome! :)

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

You need to make that first photo into an icon!

Packing for Burning Man. Thinking of when you were here last year for it. ;-)

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

And I've been thinking of you guys a lot as you've been posting over the last week! :) Good luck with it all!

Yeah, I gotta play with some icon-making...