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Owls
I love nocturnal birds, and in Sardinia there are many little owls for now (and I hope for a long time). But I'm Always worried about them, mostly during the breeding season that should starts this month, even if the most important phase is the feeding season when there are the chicks, but it's still soon for them. This couple of little owls it isn't the usual couple that I follow for years, but another couple that I've found sometime ago. How Always I got up at 4 AM in order to be in the place one hour before the dawn and to wait their arrive. During the wait was really interesting listen their voices, Maybe of alert or about calling mates, and there were the stone curley's voices too that arrived from different places. In many occasion I though that they were near my photographic blind, but in the dark I couldn't see anything. In general I not worried in the dark, it could arrive some boar, but I know that they prefer to stay far from the man, and they're right because man kill them for fun… So I'm worried from man, not from animals.
At about 7AM the owls haven't arrived yet, in fact I was thinking that they didn't came, but they've arrived after some time, before one and then the second one. At the moment I can't recognize the male from the female. I know that the female, in general, is bigger then the male, but in this case there isn't a significative difference of size, as you can see in the following picture:
They've been staying for a long time on those stones, changing position sometime or going sometime in other moment, until one of them remain hidden from my view. I can take some pictures about only one little owl, but for me was enough and I was really happy for that moment and to stay with them.
This time I haven't been so lucky with the light, indeed the Sun was covered by clouds, so I had to use high ISO in order to have a decent speed shot. For this photographic session I've used the new Sony A9 with the telelens Sony 300mm f/2.8 (with the LA-EA3 adapter), and the first impression has been really good, but I'll have to study a bit in order to understand the best way to use it.
For now I'll check the little owls from far by a binoculars, because they'll mate really soon, and I don't want to disturb them, so I'll wait until the chick's born before to shot some new pictures.
Meanwhile I working to an other project… See you soon!!
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Last time I though that everithing was fine with the buzzard, but this morning nothing has gone well. I put the tripod really close to the false tripod and I started to wait, but the buzzard didn't came on the perch when he saw the camera, despite it was camouflaged.
I'll have think something else if I want to take some picture with a wideangle lens.
Bye
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Simply owls - part 4
And this year a new season begins to observe and photograph owls, and I can't wait!!
How always I weak up very early to be in the place when is already night. I put everything: tripod, camera, light and finally I can seat and wait the owls arrive. In the distance I ear some noise and the sing of some stone curlew, someone very near of me, but in the dark it's impossible to see them. I'd like to see them and take some photos, but I thinks that I'll work a lot for succed, even because I don't know where they are exactly. Maybe using a hunt camera...
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Proud as a buzzard
As you know I'm following this couple of buzzards from some years, but I've never tried a near photo with a wideangle lens, so I've done some try but without any result. The problem perhaps is related at the camera really too close to the usual perch, so the buzzard seeing this new element, that there's not, didn't go on the perch or it was very diffident. So I decided to put some little wood's pieces, with some dry leafs, to simulate a small tripod and to see how the couple behaiviour. Today, when I went to seeing, coming Always at night in order to don't see me from them, I noticed with pleasure that they landed on the perch near the false tripod. This is a good news because now I'll be able to try this wideangle shoot.
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Mistras's pond and Sinis's peninsula
The Sinis's peninsula is a big area in the middle-west of Sardinia, rich of cultivated lands and rich of water: pond, rivers, streams and, of course, the sea.
Indeed Mistras's pond is really near the sea and it mades , with some others ponds, a big ecosystem with a wide variety of animals, mostly birds. It's possible to find many different species of birds in Cabras's pond, like seagulls, ducks, flamingos, hawks, cormorants, but also owls and barn owls during the night. Surely the king of the pond is the osprey, known as with its scientific name of Pandion haliaetus, a big hawk belonging to pandionidae family, that descends from the accipitriformes order, the same order of the Golden Eagle, for example. The osprey of Mistrass isn't native of here, but they come from the nord Europe, probably from Germany, and every year they come in Sardinia to pass the winter, then in summer they get back to their lands in order to reproduce theirself.
BlackHead Lighthouse
Osprey
