Week 52 – Snowy Owl

 

Snowy Owl. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

Here we go: The final post of this 52-week project and I am so glad to be in western New York for this one!

The number of Snowy Owls I have seen along Lake Ontario in New York has been staggering. One day I saw 3 along the lake, each in a different location. Another day I saw 2 flying around together in my hometown of Sodus. It’s been great.

One thing I’ve been struggling with however: the influence of photographers on the stress levels of these birds. I try my hardest when photographing to disturb the birds as little as possible, but I’ve noticed other photographers acting seemingly oblivious to these rare birds they are photographing. Some try to just walk right up to the birds, and the owls end up flying away, exerting unneeded energy during the exact time of year when they are stressed out the most from limited food resources and cold weather. I know photographers are looking for that one great shot, but we need to be aware that we may be influencing these birds in a negative way if we’re constantly approaching closely them to take pictures. Sorry for the diatribe, but had to get that off my chest. Lets all make a New Year’s resolution together: to be more responsible nature photographers.

Back to this 52-week project: For the past year I’ve taken and posted a bird photograph every single week (didn’t miss a week). But now the year is over and the question remains: do I continue this project into 2014? It’s been a lot of work and part of me wants to take a break. Maybe I can continue it in a slightly different way? Any ideas out there?

All of the previous 52-week blog photos can be found at the Wild Lens blog or on Flickr.