I feel like they get a bad rap and make for highly underrated subjects!

FAaFO. Kids don’t try this at home.

We’re camping, and we decided around the fire last night to play some recorded owl calls just for kicks, to see if any showed up (Central Florida). We don’t make a habit of this, as we understand it’s not good to disrupt their evening, but we were being idiots.

Not only did they show up almost immediately (we stopped the playback as soon as we saw them) but one took an aggressive posture directly overhead. We watched them a while, then we went back to relaxing around the campfire. Until something knocked my headlamp and bandanna off.

It had come from behind me, and I caught a glimpse of it flying off into the darkness. Completely silent, by the way. So we had all stood up exclaiming, but eventually settled back down. We were looking at the remaining owl when the boss tagged the person across from me from behind, drawing quite a bit of blood this time (I was only scratched).

One of the other campers decided to look up barred owl attacks and found they are quite rare, but also discovered that it’s their breeding season. Doh!

Some of my best bird pics of 2024. These were taken in Florida, Brazil, Idaho, and Arkansas.

Coastal Georgia, USA

Hoping for a little advice. I saved up all year and finally bought a spotting scope. Nikon 82ED-A 20-60x. It sure is a nice device. But i feel bad that im a little disappointed using it.

I have had a 600mm lens camera i have been using for years and as i got more into birding i felt the edges of what i could ID with the camera. Those faraway shorebirds, the migrating ducks in the middle of the lake... etc etc. You know the ones.

Everyone i spoke to told me a scope was the answer, but i spent a few days comparing side by side and it truly feels like they are resolving the same level of detail.

Again, this is a compliment, the scope is great. But i feel buyers remorse, and a little betrayed by everyone who said it would 'change the game', when it really feels like i can just stick with my camera.

Am i thinking wrong about this? Is there a trick to getting more distance/details from a scope? The other reason i wanted to get one is so i can watch wolves in yellowstone next fall. again, the 'drumbeat' of anyone i tall to keeps insisiting that i need a scope to see anything, but based on my experience so far i dont think ill be able to see much of anything in those huge valleys with camera or scope ubless it's pretty close to the road.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

1. Male Mallard 2. American Coot 3. Red headed woodpecker 4.Ref winged blackbird 5.Blue Grosbeak 6.Western Meadowlark 7.Common loon 8. Dark eyed junco 9.White breasted nuthatch 10.Male ring necked duck 11.Northerm Shoveler 12.Indugo Bunting 13. Yellow billed Cuckoo 14. Black billed Magpie 15. Mountain bluebird 16. Bald eagle 17.Common loon 18. Double created Cormorant 19.Ring necked ducks 20. Common raven

A burrowing owl I saw in Marco Island, Florida. I had to crawl on my belly in full camouflage to get the pic with the purple flowers in the background.

Seen at my parent’s house in southwest Michigan on Christmas.

Short Eared owl in Southern Michigan!

is this a sharp shinned hawk? new to birding and want to make sure I’m ID’ing correctly to log in my merlin app💓

This was taken with a vintage lens with manual focus. Meaning an old lens set with focus peaking. The camera was on a tripod with a shutter release.