Late Friday afternoon I drove over to Sax-Zim Bog. My hope and goal was to photograph an owl against the riding moon. I have found the day before the “full moon” is the best day to photograph objects in the foreground (like an owl) with the moon still not to far above the horizon. From a strictly photography vantage point the day before full, the moon is at 99% of full, and rises about one hour before the next evening (the actual full moon). The eye can not tell the difference between 99% and 100% full moons, and the earlier rising hour makes for more light on foreground objects. During my photographic career, I have pulled off these photos a few times. First one much find an owl, and then it must agree to pose during the 15 to 20 minutes where moon pics are possible.

Here is an effort from last winter when I succeeded.

However this past Friday night I failed. Although I found two owls, neither bird was willing to hunt during the early evening where I could align the rising moon behind them. All was not lost, however, the male Snowy Owl which has been hanging out in Sax-Zim Bog the past few weeks provided me a great show before sunset, and at sunset!

Snowy Owl Hunts & Catches a Vole

The Attack

The Capture, Meal and TakeOff

Snowy Catches Another Vole (TakeOff)

Sunset Railroad Snowy

One cool fact from this sequence … I was standing about 50 yards away from the owl. Little did I know it had spied a vole within 15 feet of me. The Snowy flew right at me … attacking the vole right at my feet (it missed). My heart was going thumpa, thumpa, thumpa!

Yup … moon shot failures. Who cares?!