It had been a long time. I hadn’t seen my old friend the Great Gray Owl in nearly six months…until today. I was up in the Sax-Zim Bog knocking around, the old Subaru pushing through four inches of unplowed snow, when a Great Gray flew up from a small meadow, a vole in its talons. I stopped as quickly as I could, and pulled over as far as I could, and got out as quietly as I could. Gone.
Then, as I was about to walk (i.e. shuffle dejectedly) back to the car, the owl was right there. How could I have missed him? He was perched twenty feet up in an aspen, listening intently, paying me no mind.
A passerby rolled up in an SUV, “Anything good?” he said. This is the standard birder greeting when coming upon another birder. “A Great Gray” I returned. He pulled right over. We watched the Great Gray for the next half hour. He hovered a few times but didn’t make any more plunges. At one point a flock of Chickadees found him and let the huge owl know that this was THEIR woods. The owl was unfazed.
Video was my main goal but I did have the presence of mind to snap a few frames before it got too dark. I didn’t think too much about the photos because it was the same old image—a Great Gray perched upright in an aspen—I have dozens of these. So back at home, I decided to play around with the color balance to accentuate the blue colors of dusk while keeping the owl its natural gray. I also reduced the contrast to emphasize the owl. It’s a little weird …but I think I like it.
Canon 7D, Canon 400mm f5.6, f5.6 at 1/180, ISO 2000, tripod
This is the original image before any work was done in Aperture or Photoshop:
December 9, 2010
Sparky Stensaas
thesparkygroup@gmail.com
4 responses to “Return of an Old Friend”
Garrett Conover
December 16th, 2010 at 05:36
Goodmorning Sparky. Since Great Grays are a rarity in Maine, I don’t care if all you got was a standard upright portrait, (even after seeing your spectacular plunge diving sequence and eye-level head on flight shots). I’m excited, and I like the composition, with the blue air aspen twigs looking like semi-abstract early ice platelets. You got a Solstice gift!!
Cheers, Garrett
Magne Myhren
December 29th, 2010 at 02:42
Hi. You have a most interesting blog and gallery. I’m an eager birder myself in Norway. I guess you also have some nordic genes (according to your name. As there are a lot of norwegians who migrated to Minnesota, I’ve always been attracted to that state. So there’s at least a double reason for me to follow your blog.
Regards Magne Myhren
photonaturalist
December 30th, 2010 at 07:43
Thanks Magne! Yes, my family is originally from Melhus near Trondheim on my father’s side and near Bergen on my mother’s side. I still keep in touch with my family near Trondheim (Vikhamar). I love Norway and have been there five times….Even on my honeymoon!
If you ever get to Minnesota, call/email me and we can go birding/photographing.
Magne Myhren
December 30th, 2010 at 16:42
Thank you for that initation! My father spent five years earning money in the norwegian community in Brooklyn in the fities, and I have some relatives there, and my wife has family in a small village, Derby, in Montana, so if we’re lucky we will be able to get over there some time.
Anyway, I guess your old friend here is called Lappugle in norwegian, or perhaps it’s a close relative (?)
Have a nice time. Next weekend I will take a trip to the cabin in southern Norwegian montains, Setesdal, together with my son and build a hide for the springtime and the possibillity to follow the black grouse-lek. Perhaps I also will lern from you and bild a floating hide for photographing ospreys. Life in the wild are beautiful.
Magne