So anyway, there is a fantastic piece of grasslands not 20 minutes from my house. I decided to hit it late afternoon in order to be there for the most productive time for the owls. I was elated when I arrived, 2 were already flying around. After several minutes of viewing the antics of these two birds with my bins I whipped out the scope for a closer look and when one cooperatively perched about 80 yards away I pulled out the digiscoping setup and snapped a few shots. I was happy with the results so I pulled the camera off the eyepiece and looked back at the owls. Wait…what was that diving at the shortie?
I noticed something about their flight, harriers have such graceful flight, bouyantly floating around on their long spindly arms. Short-eared Owls on the other hand have such a stiffness to their flight, almost like they are afraid to bend their wings.
I stayed put, watching the interactions, the pouncing and listening to their raspy barking call. Now there were four in the air at once. Trying to get some last images before the sun disappeared I managed the flight shot below. I had to do some tricky stuff to the photo to bring back the colors but I think it turned out nicely.