Burrowing Owl (Male)

Nikon D4s
600mm
No Teleconverter
1/2000
F/6.3
ISO 800
White Balance Auto
Manual Exposure
Shot from pickup truck window

As usual I don't like throwing a picture out here without a story behind it.
A friend of mine and a few others have been shooting this family of burrowing owls for a couple years now. They are well off the beaten path and you need a four wheel drive truck just to get to them but for some reason have become used to the truck coming out and spending time with them frequently. They don't see the truck, or us in it, as a threat anymore (although you can not get out of the vehicle or the trust disappears in the blink of an eye).
This is the male (dad)owl and was one of three sets of burrowing owl families in an area about the size of three football fields. All four sets of owls had offspring so when the chicks had fledged their nests we had owls all over the place. Some were more cooperative than others and this Dad was one of the cooperative owls. He loved to come close by, sit on a rock (you could actually get within minimum focusing distance), keep an eye on his brood, and hunt from there. Maybe he was keeping watch over us and hunting at the same time but never the less, he would always come and greet us. No alarms sounding off as is often the case with burrowing owls at the slightest hint of an intruder, sending the family down the hole. Not with this guy. They hunted Japanese Beatles, all kinds of hopping critters (don't actually know what they are) and flying insects during the day when we were there.
This image was taken on one of his favorite perches. It was the very last light where he was still lit but the background, which was below the elevation of the rock, was becoming dark. There was no flash used in this shot. It's all natural light.
I can't remember if Patrick, and Charley were both there for this particular shoot or not but we have all gotten some great images of these characters. I know both of them have posted several images of these owls in the past but I am just getting around to it. Hope to post a few different takes on their activity. Hoping, of course, to go back this year and get more. They are still there but we leave them alone until they have fledged the nest with their young. This was May of last year. More to come. Please see larger image. Thanks for looking and kudos to you if you made it to the end of the story.