As you can see, that's an Owl.
Once a year, usually in the summer, I take a few days to come up to the family cabin up north with Mom. It's almost a 6 hour trip so we can't just jet up for the weekend and generally it's assumed a 5 day visit is about right. We pack all the food we need, and the dog, and we head up through Prince Albert and beyond.
Both my parents were born and raised in Prince Albert, and generally Mom and I will stop on our way through to change the flowers on her parents' grave stone. This year was no exception. It's a nice little ritual and also a good chance for the dog to get out of the car to stretch (though not often to fulfill his other contractual obligations... stubborn little brat...)
As we got ready to leave, having decided I would drive, I climbed into the driver's seat and set my iPhone to move like Jagger. The car started to move forward until I saw something in the grass and trees.
"That looked like a small monkey." A fuzzy gray one... the type you would see bathing in a snowy hot spring in Japan.
"That seems unlikely." My mother pointed out. In general I agreed. But something made me stop and back the car up a bit. I guess the "monkey" got curious when it heard the car making noise, cause it turned its head and I realized it wasn't a monkey, it was a WOL (for you Winnie-The-Pooh fans).
Afraid that it was going to eff off as soon as I opened the door, I calmly grabbed my bag from the passenger side and pulled out my camera, assembling it clumsily.
Birds of prey know they're cool. In most of my experience, they typically don't like to hang out when they've been made. But the owl continued to observe me and I tried getting a couple shots just from the car with the window open. The shots worked, but you could barely make it out. So I chanced it and opened the door. The Owl stared at me. I closed the door quietly and moved forward getting a couple more shots. When I stepped forward again, an unseen mate suddenly took off. It had been sitting closer to where I was but was hidden by the small hill and the tall grasses. The other one continued to eye me cautiously as I kept slowly getting closer.
Some breaking (and unavoidable) twigs eventually spooked it enough to take up to the trees where its mate had just gone. Undeterred, I took the long way around the marshy area. There was a lot of stagnant water lying around and the area looked as though there had been low-lying sections that had probably been swamped earlier in the season and were only now just somewhat drying up.
Sadly, due to constraints, I was unable to get really close images because I didn't have a 70-300 lens with me. However, a 21 Megapixel camera ain't nothing to sneeze at none-the-less. I took these images with my 18-105mm lens and they cropped rather nicely. Given the sun was bright it created some harsh shadows, but I cleaned them up a little. For a completely unexpected nature shoot, I was happy enough with the results. :)
Once a year, usually in the summer, I take a few days to come up to the family cabin up north with Mom. It's almost a 6 hour trip so we can't just jet up for the weekend and generally it's assumed a 5 day visit is about right. We pack all the food we need, and the dog, and we head up through Prince Albert and beyond.
Both my parents were born and raised in Prince Albert, and generally Mom and I will stop on our way through to change the flowers on her parents' grave stone. This year was no exception. It's a nice little ritual and also a good chance for the dog to get out of the car to stretch (though not often to fulfill his other contractual obligations... stubborn little brat...)
As we got ready to leave, having decided I would drive, I climbed into the driver's seat and set my iPhone to move like Jagger. The car started to move forward until I saw something in the grass and trees.
"That looked like a small monkey." A fuzzy gray one... the type you would see bathing in a snowy hot spring in Japan.
"That seems unlikely." My mother pointed out. In general I agreed. But something made me stop and back the car up a bit. I guess the "monkey" got curious when it heard the car making noise, cause it turned its head and I realized it wasn't a monkey, it was a WOL (for you Winnie-The-Pooh fans).
Afraid that it was going to eff off as soon as I opened the door, I calmly grabbed my bag from the passenger side and pulled out my camera, assembling it clumsily.
Birds of prey know they're cool. In most of my experience, they typically don't like to hang out when they've been made. But the owl continued to observe me and I tried getting a couple shots just from the car with the window open. The shots worked, but you could barely make it out. So I chanced it and opened the door. The Owl stared at me. I closed the door quietly and moved forward getting a couple more shots. When I stepped forward again, an unseen mate suddenly took off. It had been sitting closer to where I was but was hidden by the small hill and the tall grasses. The other one continued to eye me cautiously as I kept slowly getting closer.
Some breaking (and unavoidable) twigs eventually spooked it enough to take up to the trees where its mate had just gone. Undeterred, I took the long way around the marshy area. There was a lot of stagnant water lying around and the area looked as though there had been low-lying sections that had probably been swamped earlier in the season and were only now just somewhat drying up.
Sadly, due to constraints, I was unable to get really close images because I didn't have a 70-300 lens with me. However, a 21 Megapixel camera ain't nothing to sneeze at none-the-less. I took these images with my 18-105mm lens and they cropped rather nicely. Given the sun was bright it created some harsh shadows, but I cleaned them up a little. For a completely unexpected nature shoot, I was happy enough with the results. :)
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