Preston Ballard Photography

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Preston Ballard Photography

Wildlife Conservation Photographer based in Florida.

05/10/2025

California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis)

It’s now been over a year since I saw my first Spotted Owl , that being on May 2nd of 2024, though somehow, simultaneously, it feels both like it was yesterday and like it was years ago. This weird bending of time certainly comes from so many different things at once, more than could ever be listed in a single caption, but I think a good way I mentally like to view it, is that this past year, since I saw my first Spotted Owl has been the year of my life that has been the sort of ‘extreme’ of many things. It has been the busiest (which has left little time to actually stop and reflect), the most eventful (with many great highs and a fair share of lows), the one with the most growth (mentally, academically, emotionally, etc), the one with the most stress, the one with certainly the fewest cumulative hours of sleep, the one where I have grown closer to many people around me and come to cherish and look up to so many of them, the one I have seen the most birds 😉, and the one I feel (in my maybe narrow and naive mind) has sort of spoken on the path I’ve chosen to take for my future.

This year has come with so many changes for me and although in some aspects there are things I feel I have lost with change and things I wished I had done differently, better, or not at all; I have certainly come to be so much more grateful for the time I have and appreciative of the people around me and all the countless opportunities to learn and grow they have offered me.

I guess to some degree it might be strange to classify life by the birds you have experienced, but the weight of some species rest so heavily (specifically owls for me) that it very hard to not let them have profound impacts and allow them to be the poster child of periods of my life.

I am looking forward to whatever the rest of this chapter has to hold, and hopefully an even more grand next one. 🦉🦉🦉🦉🦉

03/20/2025

Happy World Sparrow Day! 🐦 A little compilation of a few Passerelids!

1. Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum)
2. Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis oreganus)
3 Golden Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla)
4. Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus alleni)
5. Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis oreganus)
6. Lincoln’s Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii)

01/05/2025

The first California Spotted owlet (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) I had the pleasure of seeing last summer. This owlet, classified as a ‘branchling’ was in a stage of development known as branching where it was out of the nest, exploring its surroundings under the watchful eye of its parents, but could not quite fly. This stage for young birds is mostly just hopping around low to the ground on downed trees/in bushes strengthening their flight muscles.

California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) 🦉

12/19/2024

Portrait of a Male California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) from early May. This individual is the Mate of the owl seen in my previous post. Although we had the opportunity to work with and get to know somewhere around 80 individual Spotted Owls, many of which were incredibly charismatic and expressive, the experience I had with this pair of owls (only 1 week into the field season!) managed to be one of my favorite throughout the entire season. The forest stand in which they lived was gorgeous, they were a very cooperative pair of owls, and they portrayed some pretty unique behavior.

Hoping to get the opportunity to spend some time with these guys again soon.

California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) 🦉

11/16/2024

A lovely female California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) roosting in a large oak cavity.

Missing these owls a little bit extra lately!

09/25/2024

Late spring in vibrant oak forests….

California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis)

08/30/2024

Another Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa) from California. By far, this species quickly became the most fascinating and incredible species I got the opportunity to spend time with. They’re challenging to see and take a lot of time to get familiar with, but each little interaction I had was fuel for more and more. Although, in my opinion, the charisma and expression of species like the Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis) are not compared, the magic of sharing a montane meadow with an owl that boasts a 5 foot wingspan and still floats just feet above the ground in complete silence and style outweighs that. By the end of my time in California, I had spent a fair amount of time watching and learning these owls, but still every second I was with them felt like the first glance all over again - absolute fascination at every level with this species.

Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa)

07/16/2024

Definitely the most fascinating and incredible owl species I have had the opportunity to spend time with and photograph, the Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa).

Although variable throughout their range, the Great Grey Owl is a species heavily associated with montane meadows and forest openings. Although still considered the same subspecies as all North American Great Grey Owls (Strix nebulosa nebulosa), a distinct lineage (which has a proposed subspecies of Strix nebulosa yosemitensis) exists in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. This lineage is unique for several reasons, but its unique nesting behavior stands out to me, being found nesting overwhelmingly in broken top trees as well as taking to nesting in oak trees frequently in lower elevation sites. Both of these nesting behaviors are fairly unique. In the remainder of its range, this species nests dominantly in coniferous forests using old, abandoned nests of other bird species. Additionally, this lineage was only recently realized and is currently undergoing research to more confidently determine its standing, leaving it in an interesting point of limbo.

Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa nebulosa)

07/05/2024

Warm summer evenings spent in mountain forests.🦉

California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis)

06/11/2024

Despite it’s more ‘intimidating’ appearance, the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus oreganus) is a rather docile species, opting to escape predators and hide before getting defensive and striking (a trait common to most all Crotalus). This subspecies (oreganus) of the Western Rattlesnake is the most widespread subspecies in the State of California, with the Southern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri) and Great Basin Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus lutosus) only having a fraction of the range in the state.

05/13/2024

Northern Lights from the Sierras… not something I expected to see here at all, let alone in May.

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