From Rob Julian
Snowy owl....aka the phantom of the tundra. Ontario Canada
Such a great picture! I can't imagine capturing something like this myself.
this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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For owls that are superb.
US Wild Animal Rescue Database: Animal Help Now
International Wildlife Rescues: RescueShelter.com
Australia Rescue Help: WIRES
Germany-Austria-Switzerland-Italy Wild Bird Rescue: wildvogelhilfe.org
If you find an injured owl:
Note your exact location so the owl can be released back where it came from. Contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation specialist to get correct advice and immediate assistance.
Minimize stress for the owl. If you can catch it, toss a towel or sweater over it and get it in a cardboard box or pet carrier. It should have room to be comfortable but not so much it can panic and injure itself. If you can’t catch it, keep people and animals away until help can come.
Do not give food or water! If you feed them the wrong thing or give them water improperly, you can accidentally kill them. It can also cause problems if they require anesthesia once help arrives, complicating procedures and costing valuable time.
If it is a baby owl, and it looks safe and uninjured, leave it be. Time on the ground is part of their growing up. They can fly to some extent and climb trees. If animals or people are nearby, put it up on a branch so it’s safe. If it’s injured, follow the above advice.
For more detailed help, see the OwlPages Rescue page.
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I just put up this post that I grabbed last night. It looks like it will hopefully be a series of posts of before and after edit wildlife pics, highlighting all that goes into getting shots like these.
While there is of course great skill involved taking the actual shot, they don't just come straight off the camera looking this great by just taking one lucky photo.
That makes sense! Thanks for sharing! I love info like this.
I thought it was amazing they took hundreds of photos to just get 1 or 2 good ones! That's a lot just to sort through!
Wildlife photography is particularly grueling, it's basically the whole difficulty of hunting in finding the animals, but then an extra layer of difficulty for all the photo related stuff (lighting, composition, technicalities, shooting very long focal lengths and so on).
That said, a few hundred clicks is not really a big deal, sometimes I come home from gigs with north of 3000 clicks for a single day of shooting. Is what it is.
I do hunt a little bit, and it can definitely be taxing spending hours outdoors is bad weather to sometimes not even see anything. The photography aspect must raise the challenge significantly as you say, because for hunting, the window of opportunity is larger because you don't need to get a beautiful framing of the subject under and specific lighting or worry as much about obstructions, or perfect focus. Also hunting gear feels downright cheap compared to camera gear! You don't even get any free food when you're done taking photos either. 😆
I suppose the taking of the thousands of pictures isn't so bad, especially with burst mode, but when we look through our thousands of pics on the trail cams, going through all the duds gets boring to me so quickly! I really admire the patience of the photographers, because even if I spent all the money on camera stuff, I could never buy the patience!
The patience really comes in handy when dealing with clients ridiculous demands haha.
I disable or use the slowest burst mode because then I'd come home with 20k!
That fear of missing that one perfect moment would drive me nuts too! I always hear setting limits for yourself drives creativity moreso than unlimited options does. Not using burst sounds like it might force you to be more thoughtful of shots.
You should try. Photography is a great hobby to get into and not had hard as you might imagine, if you practice a lot and learn about cameras and lighting etc.
This isn’t to take away from outstanding photography and more to be encouraging.
I spent a week in a spare room photography water droplets coming out of an IV bag and it was really fun to play around with shutter speeds, lighting, and other items to get the best shots.
It’s expensive if you start buying more things but if you did try then get a used camera body and some cheap lenses and see if you like it.
I've been thinking about getting a camera. Just last night I saw a barn owl for the first time in the wild!
Nice. I’ve never seen an owl in person. Keep meaning to go to a birds of prey place near work that has owls and stuff. Fascinating birds.
You absolutely should! I was just a little more than a casual fan a couple years ago, but I started to seek them out more, and from being here I have probably over 1000 posts on owls now and I am still learning new things about them!
I also had my one on one interview today with the largest rescue in my state to become a volunteer so I can hopefully learn even more and spend more time in person with them.
They are really fascinating! I volunteer at a raptor rescue so I have seen several different ones there but in the wild only barred owls and now a barn owl.
I was just wondering how your volunteering was going!
I am also trying to volunteer at my local rescue this year. They take care of most animals, and I have seen owls there before as well.
Congrats on the wild owl sighting!
Superb... Owl.. Super bowl... Superbowl... Like an owl that would be... superb !! (joyful noises)
You've cracked the code! 😁
Dracowla, Vladimir Dracowla... enchanté.
Truly superb!
Mouse, looking up: "Whoa, cool--" dies
It stuns with style before going in for the kill!
Lucifer
Hell froze over from the look of it!
Yellow eyes are a sign of jaundice.
This owl has a severe drinking problem.
So that's what they're doing up all night! 😤