Episode 24: “Hunter in the Meadow”

It's almost April!  I look around me for signs of spring.  Though the late winter has been rather mild (shhhhh, not too loud), sadly it's not exactly spring busting out all over.  Not yet anyway.  But the short eared owl featured in this episode's artwork "Hunter in the Meadow" is cruising for lunch, and determined to find it.  At this point, at least the dead meadow grasses are poor cover for the shrews and voles he's hoping to find.It's got to be the toughest time of the year, when the light is growing by leaps and bounds and something tells me it SHOULD be warm out there... but it's not.  When the wind is up, it's downright icy.  There's no new shoots showing up yet in the meadow grasses.  Cottonwood and alder branch tips are slightly swelling, but not really turning the reddish color that signals this year's growth is on the way.  There's a little more activity on the river, as a few geese arrive.  The mallards and mergansers that have been here all along grudgingly move over as the bigger geese push their way to the best of what's left from last season.  You just gotta have faith that, as the saying goes, the best is yet to come.Short eared owls are among the most frequently seen in daylight, and are fairly common in our local meadows and grasslands. We've had sightings of this particular visitor for several weeks now.  As I watch on this day, the owl weaves across the open meadow, diving and looping in the low afternoon light. He glides along the riverbank... maybe there's someone venturing down to the water for a drink. When no-one presents themselves, he makes a swift turn and heads directly towards me, startling me into raising my camera and getting the shot in one second flat.  No time to check settings, but the dull light of the overcast sky makes for even exposure and the face is clear.Back in the studio, I work with the image to find a filter to highlight the smoothness, the motion and intense focus of this hunter.  I notice the slant of the near riverbank as it leads the eye from the left of the frame to the middle, and then up to the owl's face.  I like his position slightly off-center to the right and the way he stands out against the dark riverbank behind him.  There is good depth in the layers of near meadow, owl in flight, far riverbank and meadow grasses beyond.  It all adds up to a testament of keep moving and keep the faith - lunch will be the reward!Original owl artwork by Gustavus Alaska artist Lillian Ruedrich.  Buy it here as a 5X7 blank notecard or 11X14 matted giclee print.