Last weekend we met up with some friends at their cabin in the Mt. Hood National Forest. It was a nice day out, so we had brought our bikes up to the mountain with us. Riding around the back roads, we found a trail that led up to a large rock formation. At the base of the rock, I spotted a little bird making some noise and sitting in one of the lower pine tree branches. Giving the little guy a second look I realized it was an owl. I pointed it out to everyone and we watched the owl as it looked back at us. As I attached my zoom lens, it hopped over to another branch, slightly further away. Everyone continued on the trail, while I hung behind to try to get a few shots before the owl flew off. As I crept a bit closer, the owl suddenly got very interested in something on the ground. Just after I took this shot, it zoomed down just ten feet away from me, catching a mouse nearly the same size as itself. I didn’t have a good angle on it to get any good shots of the owl as it struggled to get the mouse airborne. However, I did get one fuzzy shot of a big orange eye staring at me though the underbrush. I also managed to get a few fuzzy shots after it managed to fly off with its huge dinner.
Nature in action!
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Technical Details
Aperture Value: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
ISO: 400
Shutter Speed Value: 1/200 sec
Location: Zigzag, Oregon
