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- #1
As I lead photo safaris around the American West there are few chances to actually be a wildlife photographer anymore. Restrictions on parking or approaches tend to make most just road photographery encounters. This great gray owl encounter near Indian Creek in Yellowstone was finally an opportunity to get off the road. We encountered the owl at 5:55am doing what great gray owls do, hunting from a snag overlooking a grassy meadow not far off the road. After an attack, the owl crossed the highway and flew into a small pine tree, then almost immediately flew deeper into the forest. Knowing that they usually know exactly where they are going, they fly in a relatively straight line to their next perch. We moved quietly along the owls flight path, stopping to examine every potential perch we encountered. After about 200 yards of moving through the forest I spotted the owl perched in a broken tree trunk, about ten feet off the ground, above a grassy area that had formerly been a pond. I had my group quietly sit on fallen logs and begin shooting. The owl did a fly around and relanded on the same spot. After a few minutes it flew off the perch and landed on a broken stump just above ground level, next to the heavier grass of the dry pond. Everyone got everything they could ever want, except direct light on the owl. There was sunrise light on the mountains and even on some of the tree tops, but it would be awhile before it filtered down to the owl. Without spooking the owl we got up and moved back, leaving the owl to hunt by itself. As we walked back out of the forest the encounter reminded me of Yellowstone 30-40 years ago when nearly every wildlife encounter was off the road, out of sight of tourists, and each photography experience was more personal. While I have photographed well over a hundred great gray owls, my very first was in 1987 about a hundred yards farther down the road near Indian Creek. 38 years later I was back in the same meadows, shooting only my second Indian Creek great gray owl. Very cool.
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