Great Horned Owl waiting for dark - Merritt Island vicinity, Titusville Florida

Light sensing eyes -
with one eye waiting to light up the night,
while the others wait to revel in its darkness.

Owl eyes are tough to photograph, because when there's plenty of light for good pics they squint to the point where you can hardly see their eyes at all. And when there eyes are wide open, there's hardly enough light to take a good pic.
Rainy or cloudy days are better, because the clouds cut down the overall amount of ambient light and slow down the transition into darkness, thereby giving photographers more time to figure out their settling and more time to take pics.

Tags:   KH0831 Florida Town Bird ThousandPlus rain Rainyday 1000+ Top 1000 Nature

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Great Horned Owl with its "ears" heavy in the rain - Merritt Island vicinity, Titusville Florida

The evening shift waits next to the time clock* before punching in.

Dah Wife was walkin' dah dog and she called me on her cell as she walked right under this guy. I suited up my rig (and myself), and went out in the rain to make this capture.
I've been lookin' to find this guy roosting on one of the Long-leaf Pines where I often hear it whoing, but the only time I've seen it in the pines it flew off the moment I spotted it.
This time (even though soaked with rain),
it decided to tolerate me since the fading light was in its favor.

* The street light it was sitting next to was light sensing,
and this guy took flight shortly after the light illuminated.

FYI - In the great compromise for silent flight, owls had to give up the waterproofedness that most birds have. So when it rains, these guys "feel" it, and can suffer (even die) from hypothermia if they get too wet & cold. Luckily in the "Great North", the precipitation is often of the frozen sort, so they are better off in a snowy environment than in a rainy one. So these guys will search out the extremes (i.e. Florida or Canada) to stay warm in winter!
And perhaps this is a possible explanation
for the "Great Snowy Owl Irruption" a few years ago,
when Snowies came as far south as Florida.

Tags:   KH0831 Florida Town ThousandPlus Bird rain Rainyday 1000+ Top 1000 Nature

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Great Horned Owl - The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, New Jersey
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Note: View On Black allows using the browser mag ( [Ctrl] + ) to enlarge the image on the screen.
You won't get more res in VOB, but you can make the image larger on the screen!

Tags:   KH0831 TheGreatSwamp Great Swamp Swamp bird Animal Portrait NJ New Jersey New Jersey Nature

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