My first barred owls and I take bad pictures!

Baby barred owl sitting on the nest.

Mom flies over with a squirrel.

Mom looks over at us.

She's thinking about leaving. Who wants to eat with a bunch of photographers taking pictures.

Off she goes. The baby is thinking "bring back that squirrel."

The first time I see barred owls in the wild and I couldn't even get decent pictures. The light was bad. The sun was hitting over the top of the trees but the nest was in the shade. They were really far away and I didn't have my tripod with me. I walked almost the entire length of Alligator Alley at Circle B Bar Reserve looking for the owls. It wasn't until I got close to the end of the trail at the intersection when I saw all of the photographers standing around. For at least an hour we all stood there watching the baby sit on the nest. It was getting hot. The sun was throwing awful shadows on the nest. All of a sudden one of the parents flew up with a squirrel and then flew off again. We waited around for a while and the parent did not come back. At that point I decided to take off for my own lunch. I plan to go back in the next few weeks but I doubt the baby will still be around then. I will take my tripod and I just bought a remote shutter release so I'm excited to use that to see if it helps.