One of my hosts in Davis is Luke Mahler, a postdoctoral fellow soon to take up a job elsewhere (he hasn’t decided between two schools). Thanks to him and my old friend Michael Turelli, my visit has been pleasant, well run, and, most important, replete with good noms (pictures later).
There used to be burrowing owls in a field near my office in the Genetics Department, but they’ve been moved in the intervening 30 years, apparently by putting them in a field containing holes lined with PVC pipe.
I hope to see these great creatures (which are not threatened over most of their range, but are endangered in California and precarious in much of the US) before I leave. Luke, however, sent me some photos he took of the local Athene cunicularia, endemic to western North America and much of South America.
Luke’s notes:
Here are a few shots of those burrowing owls. the ‘in flight’ shot was mostly luck. The reason it’s cropped so closely is that it was at the very left edge of the frame from a much wider shot. but it was in focus and it (barely) wasn’t clipped, so it counts!!
These long-legged owls usually live in other animals’ burrows, but they do have the ability to excavate their own. I have no idea how they do it.
I love that third image.
The in-flight photo is superb.
These pictures are owlstanding!
You are a hoot!
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Who, me?
Yes, that in-flight is terrific!
These beautiful little birds used to nest around the airport where we lived in Brazil. The pilots regarded them as a hazard…
Thanks guys. These birds are one of my favorite things about Davis. That and the massive Jerusalem crickets, which these birds pretty commonly eat.
My kids know all of the anoles within a mile radius of our house by their first names, and can give you a detailed life history of each.
And, that in flight picture is very nice, particularly considering the circumstances you described. Must be a good camera (not to take anything away from the photographer!).
Awesome to hear your kids are into anoles! If they haven’t already, they should check out the Anole Annals (http://www.anoleannals.org/). Lots of great stuff there.
As for the pics, I shot them with a Canon 5D II with a fixed 400mm f5.6 telephoto (which I love). Canon’s al servo autofocus took care of the focus…
Gotta love those primes!
Thank you for the link!
Love all the shots of such an appealing species! The unconventional crop of the last hugely increases its impact IMO. It draws attention to the impressively large wing/body-length ratio, highlights feather groups and arrangements, and invites one to notice features (that little foot!) that might go unnoticed in a more standard composition.
Thanks Diane! I kind of like the crop too, now all the more so for the reasons you mention. I especially enjoy the wing/body-length ratio of these birds – kind of like a flying potato.
When I was an undergraduate I lived a couple of blocks away from a field inhabited by several pairs of burrowing owls, and I picked up some of the pellets as a project for my ornithology class. Most of them contained bones of young California ground squirrels, but Jerusalem cricket mandibles (the part that survives mashing and digestion in recognizable condition) were the most common. One pellet had the mandibles of over 70 individual crickets.
Now it’s a Safeway.
Man that’s a lot of crickets. I’m pretty sure I’ve photographed those too at one point – I’ll see if I can dig any up.
If you went to UC Davis, then I know that Safeway. It’s a mediocre Safeway.
No, this was in San Jose. There are apparently a lot of Safeways (and other things) standing on former owl habitat. Hey, I wonder why they’re endangered in California.
I used to work at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. My building was the farthest out toward the marsh, and I used to see a lot of wildlife, being usually the first to arrive for work. A colony of Burrowing Owls had taken up residence in a pile of dirt left over from the recent construction of the building. I wasn’t into photography at the time, but I wish I had been because it was a great opportunity.