Screech Owl - Essex

The gray morph Screech Owl that spent the day in a box in the yard yesterday moved away from the yard today to a box on the edge of the woods behind the house. I didn't know it was there until a few White-throated Sparrows, chipping their displeasure at the owl, pointed it out around 5:30 p.m. as I closed up for the day.

A bit of video with a pair of Northern Cardinals and several White-throated Sparrows chipping their displeasure in the background.

But the real fun didn't begin until it left the box just after sunset when it perched on the branch of a Sumac Tree just under the box.  

The owl was a bit buried in the foliage so I moved my portable blind (aka a Toyota Corolla) for a better view.

The owl stayed in this location for a good 20 minutes, scanning the area and stretching before heading off for the night. All of these images were taken after dark, manually focused, utilizing mirror lock-up on the camera with an iso setting of 12,800 and a shutter speed of 0.3 seconds at 700mm. A good bit of clean up was necessary with each image before posting them here. This shot shows what happens if the owl moved. Not much of a shot with no available light.

Out of the 60 or so images I took after he left the box 8 were usable, not bad from where I'm sitting!

I hope to have this chance again this fall, photographing Screech Owls in the dark is an interesting challenge!