Burrowing Owl

1/800 | f/8 | ISO 200 | Fill Flash

1/800 | f/8 | ISO 200 | Fill Flash

On Monday morning my mom and I had the opportuinity to see the local celebrity Burrowing Owl. This owl has to be the most sought after and photographed bird in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. A rarity for this area, burrowing owls in Texas are usually only found in the Panhandle and never this far north (that I know of anyway). So when this individual was spotted along a country road about 10 miles outside of Downtown Dallas during the Christmas Bird Count every birder and bird photographer within 100 miles has been to see it since. It is a very cooperative bird, but has made it's home in a dangerous location. It sits literally inches off the road next to a hole in the ground, presumed to have already existed before the owls arrival, and although there is very minimal car traffic, numerous tractor trailer trucks whiz by every few minutes or so and the owl just sits there and watches barely flinching. It is not injured as it has been observed flying around, I guess it just likes living life on the edge, but I hope that it does not get hurt and will stay around for a while. Anyway, my mom and myself spent over one hour watching it and getting some images. It was a fantastic experience being so close to this bird and I hope that I will get the chance to go back for more images soon. The light was late morning sun diffused by some light cloud cover, so not the best, I used some fill flash to help out with any shadows and am pretty pleased with what I got. Here are a few images, I will post some more later on, so stay tuned.

Click images to view larger size.