Text message with brother went thusly:
Me: “I’m going out to shoot chickadees.”
Him: “Cool, I hear they’re good eating.”
Went out to shoot them … regardless. But ended up shooting the above instead. Yes, folks, this is the classic hooter that we associate with owl sounds — the Barred Owl. We watched him a while, took some shots and video, but we had to leave before he did any talking. But how awesome — an owl!!!
You can see that there are catchlights in his eyes, even with the grey sky. He was actually perfectly positioned for magic light — if only those clouds had not moved in!
Here’s some video footage (taken at low lighting, but what the heck):