Description
A western screech owl at Oaks Bottom in low golden light, wedged into the mouth of his cavity with one eye squeezed nearly shut and an expression that any working person will recognize immediately. It is the face of a Monday morning. He is awake. He is not pleased about being awake.
The light he is sitting in is not an accident, though. Owls sunbathe. On cool mornings a screech owl will shift to the sunlit lip of its roost hole, fluff out, and let the sun do the work of raising its body temperature — free heat that saves the calories it would otherwise burn shivering. Half-closing the eyes is part of it. The bird is not glaring at you; it is dozing in a warm patch, the way a cat does on a windowsill.
What I love about screech owls is that they will do this in the same hole, in the same tree, for years. They are strongly site-faithful — hold a territory, reuse a favorite cavity, and cache surplus food in the back of it during good hunting. Which means that once you find one, you have not just taken a photograph. You have found a neighbor, and you can go back and check on him next week, and the week after, and next spring when there are owlets crowding the same entrance.
Most of the owls in this collection are that same handful of birds, photographed over and over. That is not a shortcut. That is the whole method.
This is a high-resolution digital download of the photograph, made at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, Oregon — yours to print for your home or office, set as a wallpaper, or simply keep.
What you’ll receive: a high-resolution JPEG, approximately 3744 × 2528 pixels — sharp enough to print at full photo quality up to about 12.5 × 8.5 inches at 300 DPI, and considerably larger for wall display. Delivered as an instant download the moment your order is complete.
License: Personal use only. Print it for your own home, use it as a wallpaper or screen background, enjoy it yourself. Not licensed for commercial use, resale, redistribution, or AI training. © Jonathan Swanson / JonSwan Productions. All rights reserved.