Picture of the week

Short-eared owl

A short-eared owl (as noted by their short ear tufts) hunting at dusk over a field that is part of the Cosumnes river drainage.  At one point I observed two of these patrolling a field looking for prey like voles. At the same time a female Norther Harrier was patrolling the same fields.  Getting a close-up was quite challenging as like most birds they keep their distance from humans. This shot was based on a highly cropped image using a cropped sensor body (Canon 50D) with a 500mm f/4 lens plus a 1.4x teleconverter to get even further reach. 

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2013.  Last updated: 2/03/2013   ()