Eastern Screech Owl

I spottrd this little guy sitting on the high tension wire in my backyard last nught about 11:30. I wish he had turned his head, but after waiting a long time, I let him win and took the picture the way he was looking. I didn't dare move around too much, because I didn't want to scare him away.

I attached my flash and turned down my flash exposure by -2 stops so it wouldn't be so harsh. It was still a bit bright, but i was able to tone it down in Lightroom. I used ISO 400, F6.3 in Aperture Priority Mode. The focal length of my 55-250mm lens was tapped all the way out at 250mm. In Lightroom, I cropped it to get a larger image of the little Owl and toned down the exposure. After removing the noise, I was done.

Today was my day!

Wow! Today was my day for photos! This afternoon I got an amazing shot of a Red-shouldered Hawk close-up then I got a shot of Rat Snake; both shots were made at Sawgrass lake Park. I usually don't go out in mid-afternoon shooting because the lighting is too harsh and the wild life isn't moving around, but today I just felt the need to go out for awhile, not expecting to see a thing because of the time.

The Red-shouldered Hawk was just sitting in a tree eye-level and sat right there letting me make all the photos I wanted. About 10 minutes later, a Rat Snake crossed the boardwalk directly in front of me. It was the first Rat Snake I've ever seen in the wild.

Tonight, about 10 minutes ago, I was outside and saw something white move on the electrical wire right in my front of me. It was pitch black and I couldn't tell what it was, so I got my camera attaching my long zoom and a flash hoping I'd get a better look.

It was so dark, the lens wouldn't focus on auto-focus, so I focused manually on the wire. I still didn't know what it was. I was hoping it would be in focus enough to tell what is was. To my surprise, the focus was nearly perfect and I caught this Eastern Screech Owl. He only stood still long enough for me to get 4 shots; this was the only one full face. I've only seen an owl in the wild twice before in my life. This one is very special.

I'll post the Red-shouldered Hawk and the Rat Snake at a later date. Watch for it!