Burrowing Owl

This owl is wild, but this hardly qualifies as nature photography. Why? Well, the Cape Coral population of owls is incredibly habituated to people. They live throughout the residential neighborhood, and I was able to walk right up to this individual at his burrow in a public park. The hardest part of this shot was getting a clean background with walkers and cars constantly passing behind the owl! A cheap shot for sure, but a nice look at the bird regardless. Why f/9? I was very close and needed the depth-of-field. Not sure it was enough though! This was taken while I was guiding a South Florida birding tour for Tropical Birding.

Cape Coral, Lee County, Florida, 5/2/21
Canon 600mm f/4 IS II on EOS 1DX Mark II
1/1250 at f/9, ISO 1000