Birds of Prey

[wilgk]

My sister's husband has always had a love of owls.
So when he had a birthday recently she gave him the gift of a Pe rsonal tour/experience with these birds.
The owners of the centre are employed by the big events companies in Melbourne to have their birds scare away the pest birds at events such as the Melbourne Cup (horse racing), AFL Grand Final (football) etc.

Their venue is out in the country near Ballarat, the enclosures are large, clean & attractive plus the birds get to go out on assignment as described above.

My sister asked us along, so I could take some photos.
The owners were kind enough to allow this to happen.

It's been a few weeks since the event & Ive forgotten the names of all the birds, but here are a few of my favourite images.







Thanks for viewing.

[madcrow]

Kay, love the owl, great shots.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Bobobird]

Lovely shots.

[bnnrcn]

The face of the owl in #1 looks super Kay Is it a wide angle shot? I'm asking because the rest of its body looks smaller

[wilgk]

Thank you Maurice, John & Bobo for viewing and commenting.
Binnur from memory (I'm away from the computer at the moment) all images were taken with the 100mm macro.
I took all manner of lenses, as had no idea of where I would be shooting from etc.
I find I can only use the 70-200 on a monopod, which in turn is a bit restricting. It's fine when I'm in 1 spot with the action coming to me or past etc but when I need to move quickly & focus quickly I find the 100 is much easier to use hand held.
I see what you mean though on Mr Owl!

[Minerva]

Adore # 1. So good Kay.

[rpcrowe]

I like #1 the best, of course I am very partial to barn owls.

We have a raptor center in my area at which (during the cooler months) a free several hour demonstration is presented on Saturdays. It is a wonderful experience, especially for the little tykes who are very welcome.

Luckily, the demo is not back lit and I use flash with high speed sync to further illuminate the birds.



One event that always brings smiles to the spectators is the demonstration of a net, shot by compressed air which is used to capture birds. Usually the birds that are captured have been injured and cannot make it in the wild. They ask one or two little tykes to volunteer and shoot the net over them to demonstrate that it is a harmless way to capture. The children love it and the crowd applauds...

[wilgk]

Great image & story Richard!

[NorthernFocus]

Looks like an interesting experience. That great that they've found work for the birds. Everybody wins

[Wavelength]

Great shot of the owl, as for others, #1 is the favorite of mine too

[bje07]

Great shot of the owl, as for others, #1 is the favorite of mine too

+1
Jean