On the last day of September my niece, Zinzi Graham came by to photograph the owls.  It was a glorious sunny afternoon and the owls behaved perfectly: as in they looked amazing – as usual – they looked cute – as usual – they were happy – as usual – and Peanut flew well – as usual! Peanut really enjoys interacting with people, and he has a good appetite which certainly helps to motivate him to fly to anyone holding a treat for him. I have read that Burrowing owls often have a big attitude for such a small bird.  Fortunately his big attitude is a very happy one!!

Zinzi took some really lovely shots; mostly of Peanut as Whisper decided she would siesta for the afternoon and really wasn’t going to be interested in food or flying at all, so she stayed on a bow perch in the shade – 1:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon really is too early if your’e a Barn owl!

   BB also preferred to take it easy…

…and Peanut flew – mostly with the sun directly behind him and I really love the way his wings are lit up showing his flight feathers beautifully.  Poor Zinzi was getting blinded every shot but still took this lovely one showing Peanut’s focus – he definitely is going to get that food.

We moved around the field a bit, working out different ways to capture Peanut just as he is flying – his wings move so quickly.  Whisper would be easier to capture in flight as nocturnal owls hardly flap their wings at all, keeping their flight as silent as possible while they hunt.  Burrowing owls are diurnal, active both day and night, and have a quicker wing movement. They don’t have the cover of night so don’t need to be silent.  But Whisper was asleep by now.

Zinzi even took some shots of me – though I didn’t know at the time…it felt like summer was here all over again.  Such a wonderful way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.  I hope to be able to offer these sessions to more photographers soon – and really look forward to seeing the results of more owl shoots.