Cute Owls (5/52)

When I went for a hike in the Chilliwack Valley last week I was surprised to see lots of cars parked in an unusual spot on the logging road. I asked one of the people associated with the cars what this was about. Turns out it was a 'swarm' of bird photographers hoping to get pictures of pygmy owls.

So a few days later I packed my big camera and not-so-big lens wondering if I would get to see the owls as well. But I didn't need to worry. When I arrived photographers marked the spot where the birds were to be seen. For an hour I got to watch two of the tiny owls. Just under 20 cm tall they were hunting, perching just 10m of the road, intently looking at the ground for prey, now and then flying off again to settle down on a different perch. Interestingly they have eyes in the back of their heads. Two streaks of black feather make it seem like the owls look at you, no matter which way they face. Another tidbit of info for the biologists: the pupils of owls adjust independently and can be of different size (almost visible in the photo below - the pupil in the shade is larger than the one in the sun). This looks rather strange in photographs and some bird photographers alleviate the problem in Photoshop.

The gaggle of photographers it was a little more crowded than I like my 'nature experiences', but having people with long lenses and spotting scopes around made it easy to find the owls. Most of the photographers were polite and courteous towards the birds and their human fellows, but as always there are exemptions; this time in form of an individual thinking that loud shouting would help protect the owls from one overly excited paparazzo who ran a ways along the road. Fortunately neither running nor shouting bothered the owls.