I spent two hours with this guy near the end of a three day trip on the Roanoke River last week. I saw five barred owls and they all flew overhead and disappeared except this one. I heard many more of a variety of species but I didn't see the screech owls and great horned owls I was hoping to. This one let me watch it hunt as it basically moved from tree to tree around me. Most of the time it was only 20-30 feet away but photographing birds in action in a swamp is challenging. While I have many portraits of this bird from every angle, it is unbelievably difficult to keep the action in focus and in frame as many of these pictures make clear. In the end, I was frustrated and ready to give up trying to learn to operate a camera but I spent two entire hours with this bird last week and I don't know that I would have if I wasn't trying to take the perfect picture.