In reading through my last entry “Enough Already” I think I realized that some of the stress I am feeling is certainly (definitely) self imposed. For some reason I have in my head that after I go out and shoot, I need to come home, review the photos, make selections, and post them within some made up deadline and if too much time passes, then the photos are old and somehow not worthy on being worked on and posting. It’s like, I shot those over a month ago and have since gone out a half of dozen times, so I need to move on and those photos are old so not worth my time. I also have this feeling that I need to work on and post them in the order that they we shot.
Who knows why I think this way, but the self imposed deadlines are showing themselves in self imposed stress. I mean, does it matter if I took these last weekend, last month, or last year? I have to stop worrying that someone may say “yes.” These are my adventures and my photos are the results of what I enjoy doing.
So I am going to step out of the order and while this is about owls, it is not about the Burrowing Owls I shot on Saturday, but an outing a few weeks back with the Great Horned Owls.
Although, it was Easter Weekend and here is a Burrowing Owl from Saturday that I feels lends itself to the Easter season.
I have been going with friends to photograph the young Great Horned Owls since February 22nd shortly after finding out that there were young owls and have made five visits through March 28th. They have their nest in the nook of a very large Oak tree, and because the nest sits well down in the center, I am not sure anyone knows the exact date they came into the world.
Adult Great Horned Owl with three young offspring on February 22, 2021
Three young Great Horned Owls on February 25, 2021
Someone got caught testing out their wings on March 18, 2021
So that brings us to March 28th when we observed that the owls had been branch hopping and what appeared to be eating food that was hidden by the parents.
No wonder these little ones have grown so much in such a short period of time with meals like this.
The parents, which are the pair shown at the top (usually in the early evening), take off to nearby trees which is what happened on this evening. They were in two trees keeping and eye on their three and checking in with each other.
Maybe my self imposed deadlines really are very insignificant when you think about the deadline these two owls probably have to raise, feed, protect, and teach their little ones so that they can very quickly grow and leave the nest, most likely for their own safety.