Short-eared owl and Northern harrier Photography, Vancouver

[@cliftonwhittaker260]

I like the way you do business, Mike. All those parking tickets are what I would call vindication. 🤣

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

As someone else who was there said to some $100 was a fine to others a parking fee.

[@Owen-gc8yc]

such experience as a birder and a photographer...... all nature youtubers should look and learn from Mike

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Thank you.

[@RobHugo-yg1vo]

Awesome video!

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@rogerhance5883]

Nice video Mike. I agree that some people think you get results every time you go out to make a video. I have even heard someone in a hide say ` that Mike Lane always seems to get the shots`. They dont understand we bird photographers fail far more times than we succeed. Unlesss of course your name is Mike Lane ! 😂😂😂

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Failure is normal

[@fgb3126]

Yes your Intro sounds so similar to my experiences when I first moved to the Pacific Northwest, some four years ago now. At first the Short-eareds were one of my "nemesis birds", but gradually, as with many other species, at last they seemed to relent, and now I am, I suppose, an "Old Hand" at seeing them and getting images as well. They're actually so slow, usually, in flight, that a simple 7D Mk2 is sufficient to get some nice photos of them. One of my favorite birds all told. I'm looking forward to this video! Greetings from Camano Island, Washington.

[@nicklanfear4303]

Nice..i live nearby, the #s have been down in recent years sadly, like many other species

[@michaelktori5178]

For a man of your (our) vintage, you can sure walk at a fair lick. Well done!

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

It's called time-lapse. Speeded up video.

[@PeteCroft1]

Got your steps in Mike and no parking ticket! Always stunning birds to watch the harriers and seo

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Thanks.

[@DennisJacobsenWildlife]

Great shoots and im impressed by the Olympus combo you use! light weight and great results 👍

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Makes a huge difference when flying. So much lighter and compact.

[@DennisJacobsenWildlife]

@@MikeLaneFRPS I am considering this combo and maybe have the opportunity to get the 150-400 f/4.5 within 14 days. The problem is i cant try it out before buying but i guess if i regret it shouldn't be to hard to resell the combo pretty fast considering the demand and backorder for that lens. I just dont know what to expect vs my Sony A1 + GM600mm combo ... i know it doesn't match up but is the tradeoff worth it for the lighter and more versatile combo 😀 for what a i see in your videos its super nice photos and videos it makes for sure!

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

@@DennisJacobsenWildlife I suspect here in the U.K. I could sell my 150-400mm for a profit. Most people wait 12 months for one, but I have heard it is possible to get it much quicker. Problem is KZbin is not a great place to judge quality. Images are compressed too much. A lot of my video is shot using the Lumix GH6 with the same lenses. Not that I can see a difference in quality, but for the 120 fps 4k video. Email me at [e-mail] and I will send you some raws. Only way to judge quality is with a large file on your own computer.

[@CamillaI]

Yes wildlife certainly does not come to order, great shots in the end of the Northern Harrier & Shortie worth the wait, thanks Mike ! I spent six hours on the River Lyn North Devon and did not get a single Dipper show ! When on two earlier visits I had birds show within 30 minutes of setting up ! That's wildlife folks 😬

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

I fail more often than succeed

[@davidwilkin4637]

Great video Mike, very informative.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@imagenatura]

Wonderful shots!

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Many thanks!

[@joanantonim.p.2400]

👌🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻 👋🏻🙋🏻‍♂️

[@mich8261]

I have been wanting to see Mike Lane photograph hummingbirds. Hopefully there’ll be another trip to the Americas dedicated to these wonderful birds.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

I did a lot in Brazil many years back. Nice to do them with video.

[@nsbhagwat]

Thanks for the video. Nice images you made there. The flaming orange sunrise during the intro was stunning.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@micktoulmin4616]

Great video as always Mike Bird photography is not easy but very addictive 🐦📸

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Very true!

[@mustafakasapoglu]

It was great moment and experience to share and spend on the screen. Meanwhile, I wish you can also go for a snowy owl photography. Such an amazing bird and you are on the right spot on the right time.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

The local photographers were talking of it being 10 years since Snowy owls were there.

[@jeffolson4731]

I made a couple of attempts to photograph those same birds just a little bit south of this location in the Washington State near Edison/Bow in Skagit County. The first trip it was too windy so the owls weren’t flying much. The second trip they had eaten very well the day before and during the night, according to a photographer friend of mine who was there the day before and 2 hours before sunrise, so they weren’t flying much because they weren’t hungry. I got a few pictures but nothing great. The important part is we had fun watching them. Nice video and thanks for sharing a video of an outing that wasn’t what you were hoping for.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

I am only happy outdoors but I get happier when I succeed

[@richardfink7666]

@@MikeLaneFRPS 🤣🤣🤣

[@byMikes]

Great video, Mike. Have you ever been to North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland? Short Eared Owls are very plentiful up there, though I myself have not had much luck on the photography front with them yet.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Yes I have been. it is usually on the Committee Road south of Malacleit where they get photographed and the coast road around the bay there.

[@patthompson1253]

I was in Vancouver last week, close to where you visited. Wonderful video, enjoyed having my coffee this morning while watching your video. Agreed, bird photography is not all about successes, far from it - thanks Mike

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bonilsson3161]

Love the videos/ photos of the owl and the northern harrier, they dont seem too shy. Do you have to spend a lot of post processing to reduce the noise? The noise is definitely not annoying, hardly visible in most of your photos I would say and I have a very good 32 inch 4K screen. I am impressed with your Om camera but one thing thats superimportant is to know the camera and its limits and strenght.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

I use Topaz photo A1 on all the images but spend little time processing pictures. Noise is all but disappeared as an issues

[@paulmorton8304]

Excellent

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@TravelNatureEU]

Awesome video! Lovely shots!

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Thanks a lot!

[@doug11127]

Thanks for my weekly go to video, excellent as always. Can’t wait for the next instalment. I love the Robin, it’s so different to ours 😊. Re exposure I also find myself flipping between manual and aperture priority. Like you say it depends on the lighting, backdrops etc.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Thanks for watching!

[@williamruess7242]

Thanks Mike; always look forward to your videos. Any idea why that last robin was banded on his right leg?

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Not sure if you mean why the band is not on the left leg or why it has a band. I will assume the former. In the U.K I believe birds are usually ringed on the right leg, but it is not a firm rule and some ringers use the left leg. I do not know the convention in Canada.

[@williamruess7242]

@@MikeLaneFRPS Actually meant why is it banded at all?

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Ok. It is a widespread activity around the world. Best if I just point you at a website. www.bto.org/our-science/projects/ringing/about

[@bonilsson3161]

I would love to hear more from you about your trip to Dempster highway, did you rent a car or did you buy one in Vancouver? What did you do along Dempster, did you go shorter backpacking trips or did you just make day hikes? I was planning a trip to go canoeing the Peel river back in the late 80-s but it never happened, we got topo maps and a description of the canoetrip we were very tempted but life happens. We had canoed 3 different pretty difficult rivers in Lapland so we had experience, but going to northern Canada for 5-6 weeks was extremely expensive for us, then my friend got his first child so that kind of ended it. But I am really interested in what you focused on, maybe you came to our considered starting point, the Oglivie river crossing Dempster?

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

I leased a car for 3 months which was cheaper than hiring. I took a hide and photographed birds either from the car or putting up the hide. Rare to go more than 100 metres from the highway. I do not remember the names of the rivers, but I went to the end of the road up north so must have passed it.

[@bonilsson3161]

@@MikeLaneFRPS Thank you, its for sure a long time ago.

[@sabyasachibanerjee124]

The reality check was very useful. You do not always get he birds You go out for. I used to think, I am plain unlucky. Nevertheless another nice video

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

So true!

[@PaulVizard]

Hi Mike, I've especially been enjoying the last few videos, as I was in that same area (US side) a couple of weeks ago. I'm heading to the UK this summer for an overdue family visit. Can you recommend any good bird photography locations in the Cheshire/Merseyside area, or other locations accessible by train? All the best.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Hi Paul, Hard to answer. U.K. wildlife is not so approachable. Martin Mere used to be worth visiting, but the best hide is now gone and I do not visit any more. Formby Point for the Red squirrels maybe. Trains and public transport I know nothing of. I used this web site a lot. Select a county and see what birds people are photographing and where. www.birdguides.com/gallery/birds/britainireland/

[@FALCON_UZ]

hi bro how much this is camera please my question answer

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Best to type om1 camera into Google.

[@paddykpaddykav]

Informative as always. Have you had many rolling shutter issues with the OM1?

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Very rare. Only at 20000th sec shutter speeds and above. Not often I reach those speeds

[@paddykpaddykav]

@@MikeLaneFRPS Good to hear. Thank you.

[@leocheong9944]

Great photos as always. Did you visit Vancouver Island, and specifically Tofino? Heard there are some good bird photography opportunities there but not sure about what season is best.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Had 2 nights on the island. No bird photography done. Tofino I did not reach. Rained a lot.

[@Kentsj]

Did I understand that you add a teleconverter to the existing one on the 150-400?

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Yes 1.4x and 2x but quality suffers too much with 2x

[@HotGates]

Great video, Has the AF tracking caught up with the Sony A1 with firmware 1.3?

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

Could see no improvement. But 47 sharp pictures per sec could be seen as better than 27 from the Sony. I now have a 2nd om1 body to test.

[@HotGates]

@@MikeLaneFRPS That for sure, I was thinking of buying the OM-1 and 150-400 lens (I have a Nikon Z9 now) But what's stopping me is the image quality differences.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

I have never bought a camera expecting to get better image quality. I buy it for its features. Procapture or flickerless viewfinders for instance. Go to a photographic exhibition and look at pictures and not only can you not tell what camera or lens was used, but you do not even think about it. All cameras give great image quality.

[@HotGates]

@@MikeLaneFRPS Actually what I really mean is the OM-1 is 20mp and as your a bird photographer you can never have a long enough lens, I assume you also crop sometimes?

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

@@HotGates I do not crop very often, but it is very common to do so today. Most people only post images on the internet so do not need large files.

[@skakdosmer]

I wonder what the function of the owls' feather tufts ("ears") are. Are they just for impressing other creatures, or do they conduct sound to the ears like the feather discs around their eyes do? I'm always fascinated with the differences between English and Danish bird names. "Hen Harrier" is "Blå Kærhøg" = 'blue pond-hawk'. (Yes, the male looks grey to me, but someone must have thought it looked blue). "Short-eared Owl" is "Mosehornugle", by the way. (That's 'bog horn-owl' as opposed to the Long-eared Owl = Skovhornugle = 'wood horn-owl', and Stor Hornugle = 'great horn-owl' = Eurasian Eagle Owl.

[@MikeLaneFRPS]

It is thought to just be for display making the owl look larger.

[@bolleolympus]

There is something I really don't understand. Cannon makes those white flagshiplences and they tell us the reason why they make them white. However it seems that nobody are able to read, or what is going on. Olympus also make the 150-400 lenc white and also they tells us the reason why the lenc are white. Buth everybidy exept me are buying those "condoms" to put on them. Why? the animals do not care about a white lens as the birtchlegs also are white. The reason I say this is the fact that a lens cowered in a skin or what ever you cal it, is going to be too warm, and the glued contacts inside will loosen from its places. And the heat will destroy the gaskets so the fungi will come inside and start to gro on the lenses and eat the coating! And if the lens gets too hot it will not focus properly anymore.

[@bolleolympus]

@Inko Engbersen The white paint reflekts heat.