Mostly Owls

Saturday (1/4/2020), I went to the Raptor Center again.  The sun shone more brightly than it had the other week, and I hoped that I'd get better shots of the raptors in their mews.  I managed to get to the center fairly early and wandered around the grounds.  During previous visits, I somehow missed the barred owl and the mews next to the staff-only building, and it was cool to make new discoveries.


I managed to use as wide a aperture setting as possible so as to force a narrow field of depth, and I think the camera may have adjusted the aperture depending on the zoom of the lens -- so some of the shots may have not been with as wide an apertures as possible.  I got some relatively grille-free photos, but a number of them have the lines of the grille in front of birds prominent.  Alas, this time around I wasn't at the center when some of the birds were taken out for impromptu displays.



The best shots of the birds were when they were away from the mesh of their enclosures, or if I managed to get a good close-up of them.  My favorite shots are of Lethe the Turkey Vulture, because I never realized he had eye lashes.  I'm thinking the photos of him might make good story prompts.  I don't know if Lethe was sunning his wings or if he was displaying himself as part of some kind of greeting ritual.












 The owls tend to roost in the backs of their mews, so the best photographs this time around are of them. 

Once the weather gets a little warmer, it would be interesting to try to sketch the birds.  Photographs are nice, but sometimes I would catch myself interacting with the camera more than I would actually gazing at the birds.

I was glad that I'd gone Saturday, because Sunday was uniformly grey and rainy; we even got some hail.