There's a great horned owl at the Arsenal that likes to keep hanging out in the same cottonwood. Unfortunately its on part of the wildlife drive so it takes a while to get to, and the traffic on the loop tends to spook it. I've seen it up in the trees probably 10 out the last 15 times I've been out there.
Only twice have I actually been able to get a shot of it. It always either flies away as I slowly pull up, or is in a part of the tree that you can't see though.
The first time that I was able to get some shots, it stuck around for almost 30 minutes. Switching back and forth between staring me down and looking out for dinner. Here's one of my favorite shots from that night:
I found the great horned again this week. I slowed down as I approached the tree, keeping my eyes out for the owl in the low light. As I pulled up it swooped out of the tree onto a log on ground and turned to look at me. I very slowly approached, rolled the window down and stuck my camera out to start dialing in the shot with the low light. I took one picture - underexposed and a little blurry (600mm handheld at 1/500 sec makes things difficult). Bumped up the ISO and took a second. Still a bit underexposed and blurry! Started to really crank the ISO so I could shoot at a higher shutter speed and a truck passes me going at least 40 mph. I look up the owl is flying away. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬.
So, this is the best I could come up with. This was the second shot.
