From Jared Lloyd
Winter survival comes down to two things: staying warm and finding food. Understand this, and winter becomes one of the most productive times of the year for your wildlife photography.
Obviously, right? Every animal out there is trying to do the same thing. But knowing something in theory doesn't actually put you in front of more wildlife. The trick is going deeper, understanding what staying warm and finding food means for the exact species you want to photograph, in the exact places you wander around with a big lens.
Take eastern screech owls. Winter is hands down the easiest time of year to find and photograph these birds. Why? Because their entire existence revolves around tree cavities.
Eastern screeches maintain and defend multiple cavities across their territories for nesting, roosting, and caching food. No other owl is this dependent on holes in trees.
Come winter, those cavities offer something branches can't: protection from the elements. But there's a cost. Cavities are cold dark places. So on calm, sunny winter days, eastern screech owls all over the forest do the same thing: they perch right at the front door and soak up the sun. It's why they prefer cavities on the south or southwest side of trees.
Other owls use cavities, sure. Northern saw-whets and boreal owls are smaller than screech owls and live in far colder places. But neither has this year-round relationship with tree cavities. They stay warm other ways.
So here's what this means for you: understand the ecology, the cavity obsession, the south-facing preference, the winter sunbathing, and your chances of finding these birds multiply. Odds are you've got four or five screech owls in your neighborhood right now, perched in the sun every chance they get. The only reason you haven't seen them yet is because you didn't know to look.
