The Night Visitor...
 

Mr., (or Ms), Barred Owl showed up last night. We see this species,
plus the great horned, and hear the Saw-Whet regularly. It let me
creep up to within about 20 feet, as it was gazing around at the ground
looking for nighttime critters.

Shot with my new Canon 40D, ISO 400, auto flash/focus, f5.6 at 1/60,
17-85 EFS lens, racked out to the 85mm stop.
The close-in is cropped considerably, but retained decent sharpness.

Mr Owl sat there for half an hour and then swooped, picked off a mouse
and flew to a taller tree. Beautiful creature.
Thanks for looking...:thumbup:
GL,mD

Damn, great pics mD!

So cool, I wanna see one in person!

Badly blinded by the night-time flash of mD's cursed Canon 40D into its sensitive eyes, the Owl changed his conservative healthcare stance and became a supporter of Obama's universal coverage.

What a beautiful bird.

Very nice. Good detail on the feathers. Who was complaining about lack of sharpness from your new rig?

I'm surprised the owl didn't fly off after the first pop of the flash.

IMO - That is a pic that you would not have gotten with your P&S.
Nice job.

Nice, next time try a 30.06.

Sweet photos and great looking animal. :thumbup:

Thanks for the looks and the props!

Yes, quite sharp, and I toss some of that to the luck of
the shot...I know the cheapo flip up, on camera flash is
not designed to toss decent light that far, but it worked.

I took a dozen shots: the owl never flinched.

Gresch, yes my Canon S50 would not have gotten that,
but my KM 5D DSLR would have; don't see any dramatic
diff between the 2 cams for those shots.

30.06?! I do have a 55 yr old .300 Savage, and my Mossberg
would have taken it, and the black locust tree out, but it's a
good creature.
Thanks again, maties.
BR,mD