"Big Mac" the great grey

[jonny_redhorse]

Last week I ran into "Little Mac" the northern hawk owl(McDavitt Road)...this week I met his cousin "Big Mac" .....just me and ole Big Mac "exchanged stares" for 20 minutes ....ratty lighting again with the overcast skies but still nice to get him to sit long enough for some images....For whatever reason, this great grey swooped down from his perch directly(and I mean directly) at me from atop a spruce and "flared" up about 6' away setting his wings as though he was going to land on my ford ranger cab!....jeesaws! ...No I didn't

have time for BIF shot(about 3 seconds) but man would that have been sweet! ...no explanation for that owls behaviour!....I could have plucked his tail feathers out!.....fun seeing him anyways....

[JayinMN]

Nice shots johnny, I got some "Big Mac" shots this evening. He probably just wanted to warm up inside the cab of your truck when he flew at you.

[jonny_redhorse]

Thanks Jay!...I'm still tyring to figure out the great grey flying directly at me....I had the tripod set up snapping images for about4-5 minutes and the owl previously had flown back and forth across the road about 3 times and finally perched on his final perch....took about 10 more images and he decides to swoop directly at me!...The truck was between me and the owl and he ended up flying less then 3' over my head but first hesitated as he approached my cab....He "cupped his wings"(to slow his dive)as if he really was going to land on the passenger side of my cab roof!...lol!...go figure!....Neat to say the least!....Maybe he liked my green hat ...I sure had some close "eye contact' with the yellow eyes of this guy

[Jim Almquist]

Sound like you a very cool encounter Jonny and I am very jealous.

[Steve Foss]

Nice ones, Jonny.

I've had three GGOs do the same thing to me over the years. All three times I packed up my gear and left.

The first time its extended talons almost touched my lens.

I know that when people cast animal behavior in human terms they usually get it wrong, but it was just too hard for me to imagine the owls were doing anything but telegraphing their irritation that I was there.

[finnbay]

Got some great shots under tough light, jonny! That first one is a great portrait!

[jonny_redhorse]

Thanks again guys.....No doubt the owl was only showing it's displeasure at a bazillion vehicles driving past his feeding area over the last few weeks.....If I was an owl...I would be irritated to I guess....When a guy sees them off of of Hwy#7, there quite far off but when you see em on a backroad ,they're quite close usually...I had a similar incident many years ago as a teenager(yes, I can remember that far back )...I was riding a bike one summer late one evening almost pitch dark and was coasting quite slow down the country road near my house when I felt "wind" near my face and head and actually felt something "touch" the top of my head....it was an owl!...just enough light to see the shadowed outline against the sky above me!....Owl was flying stright at me from down the road from what I could figure and saw "movement" in the dark and was only checking that movement out..."ME"....A "close encounter of the owl kind"

[Dbl]

Cool shots jonny and interesting encounter.

[Birdsong]

Yikes! He wanted a jonny sandwich. Nice photos. This must have been so much fun. You need to learn some kind of owl sign language if you keep up these encounters. Pretty soon they'll be pushing the shutter button themselves. Just so they squeeze and not jab at it.

[Borealhunter]

jonny: Beautiful photos. The logging on the McDavitt Rd is being done way off McDavitt and it would be sad if they removed trees right up to the road. I hope the logging tapers off up in Sax Zim. I think most of the areas have been logged at one time or another in the bog.

Picked up two more photographer guiding tours the last two days. I love this because one I am not a photographer or own a SLR camera and two I get to sit in my SUV and keep warm while the client shoots away.

[Paul]

Maybe he was after you mornign cup of coffee and an egg mcmuffin on the dash of your ranger. Great shots.