Backyard Wildlife

Nature photographers often spend hours familiarizing themselves with behaviour, habitats, and where animals can best be found. And then you can get lucky, and they come to you. The Barred owl and Pileated woodpecker were in the backyard at the same time, and pretty much ignored each other; not so the other critters, I was surprised to see that after a while, the Chickadees and Downy woodpeckers started to ignore the owl as well. Can’t say the same about the jays and crows: what a racket. Of course that all changed when dusk arrived and the owl went on the hunt.

Both birds allowed me to get within 15 feet: neither birds were disturbed, as I didn’t try to get any closer.