Houston Neighborhood Walk - Greater Horned Owl with Natural Background

Chenjean and I were on a walk with Koko the other day and stopped to talk with a neighbor, who mentioned that there was a huge owl in a cottonwood tree along the trail we were about to take.  Naturally we made a beeline for the tree and found this guy perched on a limb high above.  We were surprised at its size, as it was bigger than our 25-pound little darling.  I was also struck by the effectiveness of its camouflage against the trunk of the tree.  It was very still as it turned just its head while surveying its surroundings.  No telling how many times we walked right past this guy without knowing it was there.

I whipped out the phone camera to show pics to friends and family, and we headed back home.  I knew before we got there, however, that this was not the end of it; I was going to bring the Bigger Cahoona back to do a proper job of capturing this snippet of our neighborhood wildlife.

So off I go, traipsing along with tripod and big rig in hand, hoping he hadn't moved.  So as not to disturb or scare it away should he still be there, I snapped the camera in place on the tripod and extended the legs before rounding the bend to approach the tree.  To my delight he hadn't moved an inch, still quietly turning its head to observe what was going on along the trail.  After getting close enough to set up, I zoomed the mounted camera to its full 300mm extent and started snapping away.  This and the next few posts will showcase what I was able to capture from two different positions at the base of the tree.

Same shot below, cropped and framed as an 8x10: