Burrowing Owl Sunrise

Nikon D300s
600mm
ISO 400
SS 1/125
F/7.1
Metering Mode Spot
Exposure Program Manual
White Balance Cloudy
Raw
Distance 16.90 meters
Cropped from horizontal to vertical
Wimberly head mounted on Window mount (Goofwin)

What I initially loved about this photo was that I could see a reflection of the mountain and the sunrise in the owls eye. I doubt it will show up with these tiny file sizes but you can perfectly see the sun coming up behind the distant mountain. This is why the black of the eye is so prevalent. I MUCH prefer the eye with more black as apposed to the eye with more yellow. It was pretty dark out when I shot this image so shutter speed was way down as the sun was just starting to come up. The iris changes almost imediately when the sun comes up. Lucky for me he was sitting on a perch. The perch is kind of unusual. It looks like an old tree stump that the owls have used for years. I usually find these little guys either on the ground or on some sort of fence post. Anyway, have a look and let me know what you think. Larger version as well. Have a great week.