Thursday, January 14, 2016

Owl Love

I love all birds, especially owls! I've captured a great pic of a Barred Owl in the creek behind my house.


My daughter, who was about 11 years old at the time, came running into the house yelling that there was an owl in the creek. I'm like "yeah, right". She insisted, and I grabbed my camera, just in case and he just sat and watched me while I took his picture, and I took many!  That was when I fell in love with owls.  I can still hear them outside my bedroom at night and I love the sound!


On Facebook, I belong to Cincinnati Birders.  People began posting sightings of a Snowy Owl, in Cincinnati of all places!!!  I kept an eye out and one Sunday morning I had my gear all ready and when someone posted a sighting, I was ready to go!  He wasn't hard to find, there were about 40-50 photographers on the side of the road, the owl paparazzi and I joined in!
Bless his heart, he was perched atop a highway sound barrier off of I75.  Most of the photographers kept a respectful distance, so he wouldn't fly into traffic.  I got a few good pics, but I really don't have a long lens to get close. These were taken with my 70-300mm lens and then I had to crop!   The very sad news is that my dream bird was hit by a car and killed on the expressway the very next day.  A local raptor rescue group did a necropsy and said that it was indeed a male and he was well fed.
 I think the next bird I will seek is an Eagle. There have been a sighting of one in the Loveland, Ohio area and several in surrounding areas, so chances are good!

To order prints of these owls, please visit my website at www.teachmidphotography.com

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Snow Days

I love to photography birds on snowy days!  The weatherman had forecasted snow, but you never know! I went out the night before and filled up my bird feeder and put out suet.

Had some strange bedfellows, a yellow bellied woodpecker feeding with a Starling, a cardinal and a fox sparrow, two Cardinals and a little Finch,

Some shared nicely, some fought. Either way, it was a bird nerd's heaven!




My favorite bird to photograph in the snow, besides an owl, is the cardinal. Both male and female are so beautiful with a snowy background.

 I had more Cardinals at my feeder than I have ever had! The Blue Jay was great to see too!


If you'd like to buy prints of any of these photos, please visit http://www.teaschmidphotography.com/Fine-Art/Birds/i-h2HNFc5