7 Hours, 3 Owls and 1 Broken Lens

This Saturday I was determined to track down and photograph an elusive species of Owl. Two years ago a birder friend of mine alerted me to the presence of Long-eared Owls at the park. Back then we successfully found not just one but five of them and I even got a great photo. But since getting my new camera lens I've been wanting to find one again. I searched in an area I thought might be good and indeed I did "bump" one right away. But these particular Owls are masters at blending in. So much so that even experienced bird watchers often don't spot them until they are just mere feet away. After an epic four hour attempt at finding one perched somewhere where I could take a photo, I gave up. Never once did I see perched anywhere, though I saw it fly to different roosts numerous times. On my way out of the woods I ran into another birder friend of mine and we decided to hike around together for a bit. We intended to head towards the bridge over the creek on the north side but never quite made it there. Instead we wandered up the far north paved trail near the big Oak trees that still have rust colored leaves. Here we were hoping we might spot a Great Horned Owl but to our surprised we found a Barred Owl instead!

This is the very first Barred Owl I've seen in the park since May of 2013 –a spotting that I remember well. The Barred was perched above a drainage ditch and was very interested in something below it. To say the weather today was dreary would be an understatement. But around 4:30pm the sun made a brief and glorious appearance. And this was the same time that we stumbled across the Barred Owl. It was a picture-perfect scene with the Owl out in the open and the evening sun shining on him! I immediately put my camera on him and started taking photos but noticed that something seemed off. My camera or lens or something wasn't behaving like normal. So I looked at the 15 - 20 photos I'd just taken and they were incredibly blurry! I thought "I must have a wrong setting" and proceeded to fidget with it, trying different settings. To my horror, nothing was working. I even leaned against a tree and still got terrible shots! I was more confused than upset at the time. Of dozens and dozens of attempts, this was the only "saveable image" I could muster up. Upon arriving home and experimenting and testing, it appears that my lens' "vibration compensation" feature is no longer working. Talk about frustrating. I've only owned this new lens for roughly 5 months and now I am looking at shipping it back to the manufacturer for repair. All I can say is ugghgghhhh. On our way back to our vehicles, we did finally spot a Great Horned Owl, then a second one. By now it was mostly dark and I didn't even try for a photo. I'd spent close to 7 hours at the park today but I was able to see 3 different species of Owls which I think is a personal best for me. But man am I upset about my camera lens. It's hard to imagine now being without it as it allows me to take images that I'd never dreamed of getting years ago. I guess I will be hiking with my old 300mm lens in the near future until mine is repaired or replaced.