If you went looking for an owl, you probably wouldn't find one! That's the nature of owls.... and birds of prey or even wildlife in general.

I was doing some scenic shots at the coast when I noticed a red tail hawk hunting in the area. It was so busy looking for lunch it ignored me and all the other people in the area. I had the "wrong" camera and even ended up with the wrong settings, but still gave it a try and got some usable images. Fortunately it was a very patient and cooperative bird that was circling a field and repeatedly using several perches for over half an hour.

The perched shots weren't great. It was shaded and the tangle of branches in the background was too busy:



The neighbors really didn't appreciate a hungry hawk in the area, but that fast action was hard to catch with the camera I had been using to take shots of surf and lighthouses:



The hawk even "pounced" on something very near me once. I just wish his face hadn't been shaded.:



Still, for a half hour or more I kept watching the bird and "trying things", hoping to get a shot I was happy with. I finally got a nice pose I was able to print 16x20":



Now, normally I wouldn't have used the 1/8000 shutter speed for the above image. But I'd been trying to get a shot in the shade (maybe the tree perch above) and didn't have time to change my camera settings when the hawk suddenly decided to swoop close by.

By the way, do you know how to tell when a bird is just about to take off from a perch? Often they take a poop right before they launch! "Lightening the load", I guess.

That hawk was still hunting when I went back to my scenic shots:



Wildlife photos are rarely planned, though this young lady was a daily visitor in my "back yard" for a few months and soon got relaxed with me around, giving me lots of opportunities to make "portraits" of her:



I've also found various places nearby where I'm almost guaranteed to see some wildlife and can be sure to bring the right camera and lenses!