Horned Owl at the Howell Nature Center

Horned Owl, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

This past weekend, I went to Howell Michigan and did a Nature Photography Workshop at the Howell Nature Center.

http://www.howellnaturecenter.org/animals/wildlifephotos.htm

The Howell Nature Center is a wonderful place to get close to birds of prey, especially during the Photography Workshop. The Horned Owl has been at the center since the '90s and is well experienced as a model. During the workshop, there are various stations with Hawks, Screech Owls, a Barred Owl, this Horned Owl, a Turkey Vulture, an Opossum and a Groundhog. The staff is very attentive to the photographers and they will attempt to adjust the birds for the best shot.

They do 3 shots a year and on this occasion, the temperature was perfect but the sun was pretty harsh. I didn't bring a flash as I wasn't sure if it would be allowed, and that was a mistake. A lot of people had big lenses with Better Beamers to give some fill light to the birds. A 70-300mm lens is about the shortest lens you would use here. I was using my Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR with a 1.7x Teleconvertor to get extra reach.

I also learned a few things about the birds. It's false that a mother bird will ignore an egg or baby if someone puts them back into a nest. This owl and a vulture were examples were people rescued the babies but tried to raise them by hand. As a result, the birds "imprinted" and were unable to be re-released to the wild.