Photohunt: Flexible

The theme for this week PhotoHunt is "Flexible" - hardest so far. For flexibility, there is nothing in the world that would beat a politician, like this one:

(It is not a picture I shot, by the way). I have chosen our PM, not to hurt anyone's feelings, but I tend to believe they are all flexible to the same degree.

So, for this week's "flexible" I have chosen the following meaning of this word:

Able to adjust readily to different conditions.

And it suits very well the subject I love: owls. Owls are one of the most common species of the birds:

They are found in all regions of the Earth except Antarctica, most of Greenland, and some remote islands.

And they eat almost everything the can put the hands talons on:

Owls mostly hunt small mammals, insects, and other birds, though a few species specialize in hunting fish.

They nest in many different shelters, even on the ground (and in burrows!) when there is no trees, they hunt even under the snow, the are amazing providers for their young, their hearing is stuff movies are made about (National Geographic ones, at least), they are beautiful - in my eyes. Well, saying all this, a few shots I am quite proud of. These are barn owl chicks that were brought up in our yard, so in a sense they are our family members.

These are four of the five siblings - the fifth one is deeper in the "cave".

The sentry - usually immediately after sundown one of the chicks stands near the exit of the nest, producing a curios hissing sound - like a lawn sprinkler - all the time while there is no mom or dad to guard the chicks.

This is the fifth, the weakest chick that couldn't fly like his brothers/sisters and gradually fell down to the ground. We saved him and kept him for two weeks to get him to flying strength, but that's another story.

I have never succeeded to take a picture of the mom or the dad - you cannot hear them in flight and they don't stay put for more than a few seconds. They are even more beautiful.

All shots are made at night with flash under extremely difficult conditions and in a tortuous pose, so my apologies for the quality of the shots - I know that I don't even reach the knees of a master like Moe here, to use one excellent example. But they are all mine. So enjoy.

If you liked what you have seen (or read) in this post, add your link in the comments:

I promise to visit your place as soon as possible!

To look for other photo hunters, go there.

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