site logosite logo
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • Peregrine Falcon
    • Urban Eagle
    • Owls: The Silent Flyers
    • Ospreys
    • White-tailed Kite
    • Birds of North America and Canada
    • Shorebirds of North America
    • Bald Eagles of Conowingo
    • Birds of Thailand
    • Birds of Costa Rica
    • Birds of Malaysia
    • Great Grey Owl of Humboldt County
    • Yosemite National Park
    • Other Landscape
    • Non-fliers [Wildlife]
    • Man-made Fliers
  • Bird Facts
  • Video
  • About
    • Contact
    • Copyright
    • Guestbook
    • About
SIDEBAR

GHO of CHRP

1 comment
  • Bird Photography
  • Birds of Coyote Hills Regional Park
  • blog
  • Owl
Aug 13 2016

Despite being informed that the resident Great Horned Owl of Coyote Hills Regional Park was nesting at a lower perch than its usual spot this year a few months back, I did not get a chance to capture any of the ‘fur-balls’ shots until both of the chicks fledged and no longer had their cute looks. Nevertheless, during the span of two weeks starting from August, I have been frequenting the park almost on a daily basis, breaking the norm of being exclusively a weekend shooter.

Great-horned Owl

The timing of them showing up from around 6 to 8:00PM not only works well for me to be there after work, although I had to commute via my motorbike in order to make-up for the loss time due to daily peak hours heavy traffic on I-880, but the precious golden lighting certainly added some mood to the shots as well.

The Haunting

The only downside is that I cannot bring a tripod with me on the motorbike, so no good video shooting and I have to stick to handheld shooting.

GHO of CHRP

Most of the good shots were taken right before the park’s closing time at 8PM. The golden lighting really sets the mood making the shots more interesting. However, having just perching shots is not good enough.

Great-horned Owl

The bar has to be raised, I need some in flight shots of these guys before they are gone.

GHO in Black

Getting a good incoming in-flight shot was not easy with these guys. Not only was there not much opening between the trees where they usually perch but most of the time they tend to fly away, giving you the infamous ‘butt shot’. You don’t have to read my BIF blog to know that shooting a flying away bird is not very desirable.

GHOIF Composite

Furthermore, they only start to fly when they are ready for hunting and by then there’s hardly any natural light left for shooting. Just to see if I can increase the chance of getting some descent in-flight shots, I tried my luck to see if the owls are active before sunrise by riding my wife’s bicycle in right after the park’s curfew hours (10PM to 5AM) and got there before 5:30AM.

GHO of CHRP

I was right: the juvis were busy practicing their flying and hunting but unfortunately the camera was not locking its focus due to no light. I only managed to get a few keepers shooting handheld at 1/250s in the dark. The owls fully dilated eyes added some haunting mood to the shot though.

Artsy GHOIF

Despite having so many of the perching shots, the statement “it’s never enough” holds true for bird photographers.

Great Horned Owl

The minute someone else captured some shots with different pose and background, the bar is officially raised and you just have to have it too.

Great Horned Owl

However, luck plays a big role in getting the owls to repeat their perching especially on those rare and open perches so no matter how hard you try, there is a high chance you may never get the same shots that others made your eyes turned green with theirs.

Great-horned Owl

Nevertheless, the more you go out the more chances of you getting shots that would raise the bar even higher.

GHO

GHO Stretching

0
715

Comments

comments

Bird PhotographyCHRPGHOmallardg500Owls
« Birding in Thailand
A Rare Sighting of a Leucistic Hummingbird »
  1. Rahul 

    Great pictures! I went out to CHRP yesterday to look for the GHO in Hoot Hollow but could not find it anywhere. Have you had any luck seeing it recently? I’m worried the construction near the visitor center may have scared it off

    January 3, 2021 at 2:57 pm Reply

Submit a Comment Cancel Reply

Recent Posts

  • Facts on Stacks
  • The diurnals of Hayward
  • Cute Alert!
  • Let’s Dance
  • Food Chain
  • Lloyd Lake Hoodie
  • Your Car as Bird Photography Blind
  • Birding in South Texas

Archives

  • February 2020
  • November 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • March 2017
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
Flag Counter

© 2020 Phoo Chan - All Rights Reserved