Harkening back to March 15th for this image of one of these very elusive, secretive owls.
For years I had heard about these guys hanging out at a spot on the northeastern plains of Colorado but despite multiple visits, I never could find them. This past winter / spring, I finally did.
There were at least a half dozen that had made a very dense thicket of Russian olive trees their home for the season. As I worked my way through the trees (getting stabbed routinely by the dang things) I finally found my long-sought after photo subject.
Most often they were in the thickest, densest part of the trees making spotting them nearly impossible. Sometimes I would find myself only 10 feet away and not even know they were there until they flew off.
On this particular morning, I got lucky and this one was in a relatively open area and stuck around long enough to give me some nice, full shots of it. Judging by its wide eyes, I don’t know that it was thrilled that I had found it. 😉 The image does also give you a good idea as to how the long eared owl got its name.
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