Bucket List - Burrowing Owls, Check!

I never thought I would see burrowing owls without having to drive to the West coast of Florida. When I heard that there was a burrowing owl family on Joe Overstreet  I just had to check it out. Even though it seems to be late in the season for birding and not to mention how hot it was, I thought it was worth driving out there. The first trip out was on Saturday morning arriving around 8:30 a.m. That is late for photographers since the light is a little harsh. Unlike other owls, burrowing owls are active during daylight hours. When they have young they are hunting to feed their family. The owls build their nests on the ground using a wide range of materials including mammal dung. It is believed that the dung helps to control the microclimate and attract insects which they can eat. They are known to sit on fence posts along the pastures so that is where my friend spotted the first burrowing owl. From there watching it fly out into the field we saw the rest of the family. They have three babies currently. It was very exciting to watch the owls and take photos of course.

Along the drive, we also spotted numerous meadowlarks, loggerhead shrikes, red shouldered hawk, doves, mocking birds, turkeys, and a bob white. The road ends at Lake Kissimmee where we also spotted sand hill cranes, limpkins, white egrets, cattle egrets, stilt, and moorhens. The second day out there there was a bald eagle near the lake and a juvenile eagle about 15 feet away from him. A kildeer was sitting on a nest in the gravel near the building protected by some carefully placed clay pots.

I am still struggling with getting a proper exposure when I have a dark bird against the bright sky background. This is something I will have to work on and not depend on software to open up the shadows. On the second trip out I had to stand on the edge of the car to get up high enough to get the blurred out green grass background. It was more successful than having the sky in the background.

After the second trip out to Joe Overstreet, we stopped for breakfast at a local favorite, the Koffee Kup, in St. Cloud. It's a great little breakfast spot, one that I will stop at again.

Bob White at Joe Overstreet