Snowy Owls, 2013-14

There is an active incursion of Snowy Owls into our area this year. In NJ alone there have been over 2 dozen distinct Snowys identified thus far, and the word is that more can be expected, which would likely set an all-time record for the species in the state. Thus far none have been near us for anything other than a single day, but about 20 miles from us one seems to have taken up residence in an open field in PA, so we set out to find it before heading out to dinner. As we got close we realized while I'd packed all the appropriate photo gear, we'd forgotten the binoculars, so my decided she'd stay in the car while I tried to capture some photos. Driving along where it was cited my wife pointed out in the middle of the field it had been spotted near and said, "There's something white out there." We found a spot to park, I put on my boots, grabbed my monopod and the D800 & Sigma 150-500mm and started walking. As I cleared a hill this is what I saw...




I kept walking and as I got to about 150 yards away it took off and headed left towards the road we came in on. Right on the edge of that road was a house under construction, and I was hoping it would decide to park it on the roof. I was lucky, for it pulled up on the chimney. I hustled back to the car, stomped off the mud, got in and drove slowly towards the house. I was able to get some shots from the road, but it didn't seem to mind the car, so I chanced pulling into the driveway. It just stared at us, and provided I was willing to stay in the car it was willing to pose.




This is our second female Snowy in 3 years, one in NJ and one in PA. We are very fortunate. In 2011 when we had one very near our home we met people who had been birding for years and had driven 4-6 hours to see the one we went to see almost every day. I'm hoping to see more, and perhaps this one a couple more times.

Nice capture Jake, they really are beautiful!

beautiful bird

awesome pics!!...

They sure are beautiful birds but their nature makes visiting small farms very unwelcome. These are horrible pictures I took last Dec as we tried to get a Snowy to fly away after it had gorged itself on one of my poor ducks and was just too full to fly. We secured our pens much better but still lost another duck and her mate passed a couple weeks later. Beautiful but sneaky


Id actually picked up Snowy off my headless duck and flung it out of my duck pen but this is as far it is went in the yard and hubby finally got it to fly away

Nice photo - fantastic birds!

I've been so hooked on my current workflow that I decided to try and replicate it using only Lightroom. I'm finding that the one thing I really miss is the Dfine noise reduction. It does such a remarkable job in the first step that reintroducing noise is often difficult. LR5 has some cool new functions, and I could replicate most of what I do with control points using the brush tool, but not as easily. Still, it's nice to simplify sometimes.

BackdoorHippie said:

I've been so hooked on my current workflow that I decided to try and replicate it using only Lightroom. I'm finding that the one thing I really miss is the Dfine noise reduction. It does such a remarkable job in the first step that reintroducing noise is often difficult. LR5 has some cool new functions, and I could replicate most of what I do with control points using the brush tool, but not as easily. Still, it's nice to simplify sometimes.

Click to expand...

Most excellent!

What a beautiful bird! Your photography is remarkable, Jake! I really prefer right clicking and opening the photo in a new tab then clicking on the photo to enlarge it. That REALLY shows the beauty of this owl.