If you are familiar with the outdoors and the behavior of wildlife, you would immediately realize that this is a very rare and special moment. The Wild Images Team has spent tens of thousands of hours in the wilderness and walked tens of thousands of miles over the land. And yet this is the one and only time we have ever encountered this in the wild: an owl found roosting in a tree during the daylight hours. Anyone who has been around owls will tell you that they are notoriously hard to spot. Many individuals have seen them only at night, when they are much more active and vocal, by spending hours searching the trees with flashlights. However, the Wild Images Team has adopted a responsible and respectful viewing and photographing process. We absolutely do not disturb that which we are walking amongst or trying to image. We keep our distance from all wildlife, opting to use long range telephoto lenses, and will never shine lights on any wildlife. As such, we do not have the opportunities that others may utilize. We have encountered hundreds, more likely thousands, of owls of all different North American species during our travels. Almost always the encounters do take place at night. Often the encounters will simply be hearing their haunting calls, though on occasion we will be able to watch one in flight which usually appears as a silhouette against the slightly lighter sky and stars. We have had a number of encounters in the light of day, but only just after sunrise or just before sunset. And these encounters are usually brief as the owl is very mobile by either leaving the roosting spot as the sun is going down to begin the night activity and hunt, or else heading back into the thick foliage at dawn to find a roosting spot. And once they find a roosting spot, they become nearly impossible to spot. They are heavily camouflaged and remain completely silent. So this particular day was very special. Here The Wild Images Team spotted a great horned owl in the wild roosting in a mesquite tree in the heat of the Sonoran Desert during the middle of the day. This particular owl was spotted about two hours after dawn, and we spent the entire day observing it from a distance until it raised its wings and took off just as the sun set. This gave us a rare opportunity to observe and photograph its behavior over the span of about 10 full hours. And due to the long photographing time, we captured over 700 images of this one subject, by far a record for us of the number of photos taken during a series on any one subject. In this image the owl shakes his head back and forth rapidly, a behavior we witnessed it doing several times during the day. One particular sister image, captured when the owl was looking in our direction while standing in a perfect posture, is available for sale in our store. The Wild Images Team has captured many other photos in Arizona, such as the colorful storm buildup in the painted desert, the stark view of an incredibly tall monsoon cloud over desert, the sky covering massive anvil cloud over the mountains, the isolation in the curtains of rain over the Navajo Nation, the deep red lightning scene in the Mazatzals, the moment Zeus throws a bolt over Cave Creek, the network of colorful bolts over the Sedona ridges, the rainfall created colorful dry wash in bloom, the dangerous stripe-tailed scorpion climbing plants, the deep desert late night glowing bark scorpions, the dynamic image of a honeybee on an exotic wildflower, the view of a hummingbird among the thick wildflowers, a lucky shot of a great horned owl roosting in mesquite tree, the evening view of an organ pipe cactus, the serene scene of ocotillos and saguaro cacti, the view from Bell Rock of scrub brush and phenomenally colorful cliffs, this precarious Wupatki box canyon dwelling, a look up at the very majestic Wukoki Pueblo ruins, a chance encounter with a thunderstorm through a Wukoki Pueblo window, and the spiny sharp glass sculpture with cacti, each of which are available for sale in our store. Our blog posts from Arizona have documented the close up of a large stripe-tailed scorpion, the animated behavior of a great horned owl, the nearly daily encounters with the multitude of rattlesnakes, the mysterious darkness created by a very prominent Alexander’s Band between two brilliant rainbows, the crazy late sunset when red rain fell over the Mazatzal Mountains, monsoon season forming rain curtains hanging in front of the sunset, the sunset moment when delicate rain curtains fell in front of a darkening sky, spring rainfall creating a colorful desert bloom in a dry wash, the dynamic view of a honeybee equipped with dual pollen baskets among the blooms, the red sunlit clouds with a rainbow over the foothills of Black Mountain, the massive spectacle of a giant spiderweb of lightning over Black Mountain, near Sedona where red cliffs are framed by cane chollas, the reddish glow of sunset lighting an organ pipe cactus, the precarious location of the cliff edge Box Canyon ruins, the strategic location of the majestic Montezuma Castle Sinagua dwellings, The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina at a scenic Grand Canyon overlook, The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina in front of the Wupatki Pueblo, The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina at the Pima Air & Space Museum, Tombstone and the Original Bird Cage Theatre history, its interior eponymic Bird Cage balcony seats, its secretive hidden door beneath the stage, through which lies the underground hidden gambling room, next to a hidden room for a lady of the night, the OK Corral Morgan Earp, Doc Holliday, Virgil Earp and Wyatt Earp and their gun fight with Tom McClaury, Frank McClaury, and Billy Clanton, the Boothill Graveyard headstone of Lester Moore and the headstone of John Heath, the reflective multicolored boatload of glass, the mass of blue and white glass atop a wall, the lighted view of purple stem vegetation glass, the lighted view of red stem vegetation glass, the closer view of the textures and shapes of Chihuly glass, the overlook view of Comet Neowise with a saguaro, which was brightly shining over the town of Cave Creek, eventually with its bright green coma and tail, as it appears to drop down into a saguaro grove, the day when rare snow fell in the Sonoran Desert and covered Black Mountain in a white blanket, the weeks of a devastating large record setting Bush Fire that continuously raged through the Superstition Mountains, the day when the Aquila Fire burned through Desert Hills causing massive destruction to a few structures, the day that the East Desert Fire nearly burned into the Cave Creek area, and then two weeks later the day when the devastating Ocotillo Fire did burn down into and throughout the estates which were protected by spectacular firefighting around the town of Cave Creek leaving behind this iconic image.
To see more photos, please visit our store