When we first moved into our apartment we heard strange animal noises from the woods behind the apartment complex. They occurred mostly at night and the early morning hours, but also occasionally during the day. Based on the calls Lauren suspected it was a Barred Owl which we confirmed by consulting our bird book. There were a couple of distinct individuals that we heard almost every day and morning. One night we even tried to track the owl. We didn't get very close, but due to some rough triangulation we determined it likely came from a swampy area immediately adjacent to the apartment complex.
One afternoon we were outside when an individual started vocalizing. We grabbed our binoculars and went trudging into the swamp to try and find the source. Of course once we entered the swamp the calls stopped. It had sounded very close, but we couldn't tell if it was super close, or more like 1/4 mile away. We had reached an impasse in the swamp due to a small brook when Lauren called out that she had managed to spot the owl! It sat unmoving in a tree not 100' from where we were and blended in perfectly with the mottled tree trunks. How Lauren managed to spot it is beyond me. Maybe she has an animal connection.
It was indeed a Barred Owl, and it looked amazing. I don't think I've ever seen an owl up close and personal before, and certainly not in the wild. When it looked at me my heart just stopped, it was so intense.
We huddled up under a nearby tree and watched the owl for about 45 minutes. I ran back to the apartment and grabbed my camera to try my hand at digiscoping. I don't have any tools to assist me, so it was a very precarious situation holding the camera precisely aligned with the binoculars and trying to manually focus the camera at the same time (since autofocus doesn't work so well through so many pieces of glass). Thankfully the owl didn't fly away or move during the whole ordeal. By the end I think the results were pretty decent.
Without binoculars (arrow points to owl):
Through Lauren's 10x binoculars:
What a difference the binoculars make! All in all a very chill large barred owl. We speculate it's a female due to her large size. We have continued to hear her and others in our back woods for the last month or so. Wildlife is so cool!
One afternoon we were outside when an individual started vocalizing. We grabbed our binoculars and went trudging into the swamp to try and find the source. Of course once we entered the swamp the calls stopped. It had sounded very close, but we couldn't tell if it was super close, or more like 1/4 mile away. We had reached an impasse in the swamp due to a small brook when Lauren called out that she had managed to spot the owl! It sat unmoving in a tree not 100' from where we were and blended in perfectly with the mottled tree trunks. How Lauren managed to spot it is beyond me. Maybe she has an animal connection.
It was indeed a Barred Owl, and it looked amazing. I don't think I've ever seen an owl up close and personal before, and certainly not in the wild. When it looked at me my heart just stopped, it was so intense.
We huddled up under a nearby tree and watched the owl for about 45 minutes. I ran back to the apartment and grabbed my camera to try my hand at digiscoping. I don't have any tools to assist me, so it was a very precarious situation holding the camera precisely aligned with the binoculars and trying to manually focus the camera at the same time (since autofocus doesn't work so well through so many pieces of glass). Thankfully the owl didn't fly away or move during the whole ordeal. By the end I think the results were pretty decent.
Without binoculars (arrow points to owl):
Camera at full zoom:
What a difference the binoculars make! All in all a very chill large barred owl. We speculate it's a female due to her large size. We have continued to hear her and others in our back woods for the last month or so. Wildlife is so cool!
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