Birds Of Prey Photography
Snowy Owls In-Flight Alberta Raptors
Snowy Owl incoming photo captures the snowy owl at lift off in the prairies of Alberta, Canada.
Below is a tight crop of the same photo showing those snowy owl eyes up-close. Wow, what an amazing bird of prey. photographed on the Alberta prairies.
Northern Hawk Owl Photos In Flight - Alberta
A few recent photos of two different northern hawk owls in flight. Both shot on very dull overcast days, hopefully the next hawk owls will be in good light!
The photo at left was shot at ISO 400, Aperture f/2.8, Shutter Speed 1/2000th, both hawk owl photos are shot using the nikon 300mm 2.8 VR, handheld.
Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR 2 Owls Review
Well, this new Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR lens of mine is amazing, the detail, tracking and super fast focusing is a dream come true! My first test/play with the 300mm VR was in total overcast, very dull light and a fast moving object. These photos are in good light, and still a fast moving object. The VR works great, especially when panning a bird in flight.
Review Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR Snow Storm Snowy Owls Lens Review
Review and my first day out testing my new Nikon 300mm f/2.8 VR on snowy owls in flight just west of Calgary, Alberta. Perfect review conditions, It was dark, total overcast, snowing like crazy and high winds that made matters worse, did I mention cold! But the nikkor 300mm f/2.8 VR tracked perfectly, locked on target even when the owl was just a blur behind blowing snow!
Snowy Owls Flight Photos
The last set of the snowy owls in flight, Moving on to other birds and beasts but I hope you enjoyed this series of the snowy owl in flight from Alberta Canada
Snowy Owls In Flight
Photographing the snowy owls here in alberta Canada, so here are a few more photos of a female snowy owl in flight.
Snowy Owls In A Snow Storm
Totally overcast and snowing like crazy when we found this snowy owl just east of Calgary.
My oldest son Tyler is in town and unlike his younger brother, has never seen a snowy owl before so we hit the road late this afternoon. Just 15 min. east of Calgary, we found out first snowy owl. In [...]
Gyrfalcon Photos, Alberta Canada
A few In-flight photos of a male white gyrfalcon attacking a ringed-neck pheasant in near white-out conditions in Alberta, Canada!
Great Horned Owl In-Flight
hree frames of a surprised great horned owl in-flight, only three frames because thats all I got as he passed by very quickly on a cold day.
Great light for photography, we also saw two snowy owls and one merlin falcon.
Alberta Snowy Owls
Photographing in-flight Alberta snowy owls in crappy light is still lots of fun, especially when they get good and close to the photographer!
The crappy light was due to a chinook arch, it was warm but very dull for in flight snowy owl photos.
Immature Bald Eagle - Bow River Calgary Alberta
A couple quick photos of an immature bald eagle in-flight fishing the Bow River here in Calgary Alberta
Other birds of prey seen this evening include, american kestrel, merlins, sharp-shinned hawk, 4 osprey’s, 1 adult bald eagle, blue heron, swainsins hawks, red-tail hawk and 1 great horned owl.
Alberta Swainson’s Hawk - Dark Phase - Again!
I went looking for that dark phase or dark “morph” swainsons hawk tonight, and found him! It was the same swainson hawk posted here. I love these birds of prey, especially the the dark phase birds. Soon they will be gone, on their way to the fall migration to South America. A few photos [...]
Birds Of Prey, Nature & Wildlife Photography by Mark Williams
A good friend of mine and fellow photog Mark Williams has finally put together a web site showcasing Birds of prey, nature and wildlife photography.
Swainsons Hawk, Dark Morph/Phase in-Flight
A photo taken tonight of a dark morph, or dark phase swainsons hawk in-flight. These hawks are starting to gather, getting ready to make the long flight south. This swainsons hawk is shown screamiong with mouth open wide.
Merlin Attacks Kingbird, Kingbird Attacks Falcon
The falcon had just grabbed dinner, but it was not an easy catch! A second kingbird was in hot pursuit of the falcon and was attacking the merlin, actually landing on the merlins back.
Bad light, and it was going away from me, but I though it might be of interest to some.
Babe in the Woods, Great Horned Owlet
I can’t help myself, taking photos of raptors, in this case owls is my favorite thing to photograph and tonight I finally had some light!
Because great horned owls are located in woods, finding light is always an issue, and if light is available, its usually blocked by trees or foliage. But tonight the rays of [...]
Alberta Prairie Falcons In-Flight
Spent Saturday with a good friend looking for and photographing prairie falcons southwest of Calgary, Alberta. In total we found two adult males, and one adult female prairie falcon and started taking pictures of these awesome falcons in flight.
Not easy tracking these birds of prey as they are moving very fast, trying to track [...]
Birds & Beasts
No, that beast on the left looking over the branches is not a samsquanch, a.k.a. bigfoot or sasquatch, it is the tree eating porcupine, in this case a very cute baby porcupine!
Swainson’s Hawk’s Return
The Swainson’s hawk’s are back from migration and can be seen not only in the prairies but also within the city limits of Calgary Alberta. The last few days have been exciting for me as I love to find and photograph raptors! Over the last few days I have photographed all kinds of birds of prey.
Light Morph/Phase Rough-legged Hawk Flight
We spotted 4 or 5 rough-legged hawks today, the in-flight hawk pictured on the left was a light morph (or light phase) rough legged hawk. With cameras in hand fellow photog David Lilly & I scouted around south west of Calgary looking for anything interesting and hoping to see an early mountain blue bird. Still a little early for blue birds, but we found a few rough legged hawks including a light (pictured) and dark morph bird as well as few others hunting a stretch of dirt road south west of Calgary.
Bald Eagle Trying To Catch A Duck Dinner
I watched and photographed an immature bald eagle make a VERY lame attempt to catch a goldeneye duck on some open water on the bow river late this afternoon. These pictures are heavily cropped as the action was a long way off but I though I should post them anyway.
Birds In-Flight Action Photography Tips
I love action photography and birds in-flight are one of my favorite forms of this, especially birds of prey (hawks, eagles, owls & falcons).
Seconds count in this type of fast action photography, grab the moment if you can, and you can if you practice…
Great Horned Owl Photographed
You don’t have to go far to find wildlife in this city, this great horned owl was photographed within the city limits of Calgary, not bad eh? Not only did this owl sit for few seconds for a photo, myself and friend Bayar saw plenty of deer, three coyotes and lots of ducks! Hope you all are not sick of owl photos (if thats possible!) as I seem to keep finding them lately.
Hawk Owl Portrait
These are full frame photos of the northern hawk owl, to the left shows the hawk owl sitting on a fence post in a snow storm, photo taken last week.
Hawk Owl Action Photos
A few action shots of an in-flight hawk owl hunting over farm fields in Alberta, the hawk owl here is photographed moving fast along a fence line on his way to dinner.
Northern Hawk Owls Alberta
I say owls, because I was lucky to spot two northern hawks within 100 yards of each other thanks to a tip on its location from a friend.
To watch this fast flying hawk owl hunting was a thrill and only 40 min. from downtown Calgary made it even better 
The portrait of the owl on the left shows close-up what these owls look like. I lucked out and also got a few flight shots..
Eagles & Coyotes Hunting Geese
I headed down to the Bow river here in Calgary in hopes of photographing the many bald eagles that cruise the open water for ducks this time of year. The ducks are are plentiful in the small patches of open water, 100’s, if not 1000’s can be seen in these patches of open river. Within [...]
Alberta’s Great Gray Owls
Yes, more photos of the wild great gray owls that roam the forests of Alberta Canada! These are not fresh photos, but are a few weeks old from other owl outings, some posted here on the site.
A friend of mine, and fellow photog David Lilly went looking for the owls again today, second time in a row and we got skunked, again! Nothing, not even a glimpse of the gray ghost. Oh well, better luck next time.
Northern Hawk Owl In-Flight
I photographed this Northern Hawk Owl in-flight last winter and met a few new friends while at it, in fact, they pointed me in the right direction for this northern hawk owl. Here is a sequence of photos of the owl hunting and capturing his dinner, in this case a mouse!
Inglewood Bald Eagles
I dropped by Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and noticed on the main pond there are 100’s of ducks, I also noticed that something has been eating them! On the ice over the pond are a few explosions of duck feathers! Now it could be coyotes, ravens or magpies eating the ducks, or maybe eagles.
Great Horned Owl
I saw a total of three great horned owls the other day, here is a photo of one found along the banks of the Bow River in Calgary. I also viewed plenty of eagles roosting in trees, at one point there must have been 20 or so in one tree, but too far off for a photo.
Great Gray Owls, Alberta
Finally, I got a chance to see and photograph the great gray owl! Today I went looking for the great gray and found two of these owls hunting along a fence line north west of Calgary, what a thrill!.
Snowy Owl Alberta
Reports of snowy owls was enough for me to take the drive, we found 8 snowy owls there. Not the best day for photography as it was dark, overcast with light snow, but to watch these snowy owls made my day.
Another Great Horned Owl
This great horned owl was photographed last Sunday just south of Calgary Alberta. I was actually looking for rough-legged hawks and came across this owl hiding in a tree.
Scary Halloween Owl
Just for fun, here is one scary looking halloween owl picture, actually it is a great horned owl photographed in Calgary, Alberta!
Swainson’s Hawks In Flight Alberta
The Alberta Swainson’s Hawks will start there migration soon, but last week I photographed an adult Swainson’s hawk in-flight hunting the prairie for anything that moved! I did notice one Swainson’s hawk dive at what looked like a quail. The hawk dropped out of the sky like a rock, but the prey was too fast and flew off.
Great Horned Owls, Calgary Alberta
This is my fourth pair of great horned owls in less than three months, always fun to find and always difficult to photograph. These owls are always hiding in thick cover.
Calgary’s Bald Eagles
Late this after noon I found a nesting pair of bald eagles. I found the adult pair, then I found the nest, I saw the two young in the nest ( I think two) with mom, then the adult male found me!
