Burrowing Owls
I got up early and drove to the Pinnacles area to shoot the bighorn where I saw them yesterday. There were far fewer this morning than yesterday morning, and they were more scattered around the area.
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While I was watching the lambs playing, I talked to a woman who used to live in this area but who now lives in Colorado. She obviously knew the area very well. We talked about areas we had photographed, and she told me about a family of badgers she had photographed yesterday and an area to shoot burrowing owls. She was very vague about the location of the badgers, but told me where to look for the burrowing owls. Carol and I photographed burrowing owls around the Salton Sea several years ago. They are incredibly cute, so I checked them out after the bighorn settled down to sit out the heat of the day. When I pulled up, I saw the lady with her 600 mm lens intently watching a burrow only about 15 feet from the pullout. There was a family of 5, but I only saw 4 of them. They gathered around the edge of the burrow they "borrowed" from a prairie dog family. The owls were only about 6" tall with huge eyes. Periodically, one of the babies would get brave and run a few feet from the burrow into small group of weeds. The lady photographer pointed out another family of owls about 30 feet away where the parents were feeding the babies. The babies stood on the edge of the burrow and watched for the parent arriving with the food. The parent always landed a few feet from the burrow. The babies ran out to get the prized bug and then ran back to the burrow. There was a parent returning with food every 5 - 10 minutes. We could see the parents hunting in a grassy area just behind the prairie dog community. They flew over the area, turned into the wind, and hovered in mid-air until they saw their prey. Then they dived into the grass and flew back toward the burrow with breakfast. It was fascinating. I wish the burrow had been closer. It was a bit beyond my 400 mm lens for such a small target.
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On the way back to camp, I stopped to photograph the Yellow Mounds area. As its name suggests, this is an area of rounded yellow mounds in a lush valley between two ridges of badlands formations. The contrast of colors is enhanced in the spring with the lush green grasses surrounding the multi-hued yellow mounds with the gray badlands formations in the background. I stopped at all the turnouts and then circled back to shoot the turnouts on the north-bound side. Yellow Mounds is such an interesting area, I wanted to take a good look at the best angles and compositions.
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After lunch, Carol joined me to repeat the areas I photographed this morning. We photographed the burrowing owls, but because it was later afternoon, we had to shoot on the opposite side of the road in order to have the light at our backs. The owls were much farther away on the other side of the road, but the prairie dogs were very cooperative.
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Our final stop was Sagecreek Rim Road where I had seen the bighorn sheep herd the first day. When I turned around from shooting the badlands formations, I saw this prairie scene with the lone tree trying to eke out its existence. These prairies extend for miles in all directions as soon as you move away from the river valleys.
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