Two previous trips to Philippe Park to see the owls hadn’t been successful. Not only were we freezing, but the owls were hunkered down keeping warm also. But yesterday was a perfect Florida winter day, so off I went. As usual, it was the other photographers who had to point out the nest, and Mama in the tree keeping watch. But was it any wonder I couldn’t spot her when she was so well camouflaged? 
Thus you have the dilemma, which side of the trees do you want to shoot from? This side was the best view of the babies when I was there last year, but the other side had a contingent of photographers waiting for Mama to fly down to the nest. When the babies were stirring, that’s when they expected her to fly, and that was the shot they were waiting for. So I marched myself and my camera over to that side to see what I could see. And I wasn’t disappointed.
And there was Mama too, always watching. She was preening, the babies were stirring, the photographers were sure she was ready. I realized that I could zoom out and you could see the nest and Mama, but the perspective is skewed. We were standing on a hill, so the fact that the nest was up high, and that Mama was behind, in another tree and much higher than the nest is, doesn’t show. But this was the view.
I headed to the other side again, tired of waiting for her to fly, and convinced that the babies would be putting on a show over there. I missed the fly shot by just a minute, and there was a lot of activity that looked like feeding, but down low in the nest. Another photographer asked if I’d gotten the shot where Mama picked up a rat and moved it from one side to the other, but no, no I did not. I was trying to hold out for shots of all three of them, but that one baby wasn’t cooperating. Darn it. But I’m not really complaining, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 