19/07/2024
Yes, I still take bird images ! 🦉
Indeed it’s obvious that I’ve been focusing more on astrophotography as of late, but bird photography will always remain a passion!
I’m not an owl expert, but I think this a barn owl. Please let me know in the comments if you think otherwise. 👇🏻
Barn owls are not scarce in Switzerland but I rarely have seen them in our area. The past 2 weeks, while outside at night doing some deep space photography, I’ve heard some bird calls that I didn’t recognize (not typical barn owl screeching either). It turns out that we’ve got a pair of them roosting in a large larch tree in our garden. Maybe they’re using the tree for a hunting perch. I don’t think that they are nesting there since the forest is not too far and provides much better cover (could be wrong but I can’t spot a nest area in the tree). Last night, with an almost 90% moon rising, one could observe them flying around the dimly-lit landscape as silhouettes against the night sky. They’re so silent!! 🤫 🦉
Autofocus doesn’t work in these conditions, so I estimated the distance by pre-focusing manually, using high speed flash to illuminate to about 20 meters. Of course I had to get lucky, hoping one would pass close to me. Of the 2-3 decent images I think this one is the best of the lot.
Nikon D850 with 70-200 f/4 + SB-910 flash
