Bringing Home the Bacon

Thanks for the note, JoAnn. This was a family whose location I learned of one summer a few years back. I was able to visit them periodically over the course of several weeks and watch the progression. 7 fledglings is towards the large end of the range on clutch size, and 6 of the little ones survived to begin their migration south. That was good to see because the Burrowing Owl is fairly threatened up here for many reasons, and it was a rare and amazing experience to be able to observe this family for much of the summer. I was a fair distance out from the burrow, using a long range photo setup. Between the long lens, teleconverter and camera format, this photograph was taken with the equivalent of about a 1500mm lens. For the most part the owls paid me little attention -- dad was too busy hunting, the kids were hungry, and mom judged me no threat. :) I popped my closest vehicle door, set up the tripod in the opening created, and took photos with the lens sticking through the rolled down window. When I would stop by, I just waited and watched while the family did their thing...

Royce, what an awesome shot! Your commentary adds to the shot. How close were you when you took this? How long did you have to wait? Or did you just happen on to this family?