eregyrn | More catch-up -- Owl Show (Reply)

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: