Hi-ISO Flashlight Owling - 21 Nov 2025

I decided to make a run down to Sterling State Park to look for owls this morning. Unfortunately, my Godox V860II(S) battery would not charge. At all. So I decided to see how my headlamp and flashlight setup would do on its own. I left the house shortly after 4 am.

I velcroed my small Maglite flashlight to the bottom of the Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens with the idea that it would illuminate the bottom half of my subject (owl) while my headlamp would illuminate the top half. At least in the house I could autofocus the Sony a1 when used in this manner.

I spent some time behind the boat launch and had no luck hearing any owls. I then headed to the south end of the park to the parking lot next to the foot bridge to the Marsh Loop walking trail. Again, no luck.

However, as I was returning to the car I heard a faint tremolo of an Eastern Screech Owl near the pine trees where a Saw-Whet Owl was roosting a few years ago. Turning the headlamp on I spotted it just a few feet away in a bare tree. 

Initial photos were awful. The camera was at ISO 3200 and the owl was exposed at ¼second, too slow for handholding 200mm. And it was in Mechanical Shutter mode. So I had to quickly switch back to Electronic Shutter and Auto-ISO (100-64,000) with the hopes of getting faster shutter speeds. At ISO 64,000 I was still only getting 1/20-1/30 second shutter speed wide open (f/5.6). It was enough.

I was able to shoot near 30 fps and capture 1-2 sharp frames per burst. The rest would show eyeball trails. In the meantime the Eastern Screech Owl flew across the path to the edge of some woods, so I followed it through a field of Teasel and got some pics before it flew off, again.




I then returned to the car and headed north to Point Mouillee / Roberts Road to look for more owls.

William C. Sterling State Park, Monroe US-MI 41.91861, -83.33542, Monroe, Michigan, US
Nov 21, 2025 4:44 AM - 5:57 AM
Protocol: Traveling
2.166 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Dark, very dark. 45F, calm
1 species

Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S285414219

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

Arriving at Roberts Road shortly after 6 am I found the road surprisingly void of owl activity. I stopped at 3 different wood patches south of Rheaume Road and heard nothing. I then drove back north of Rheaume Rd and tried another wooded patch. Nothing.

As I was about to get into the car I spotted something land in the tree in front of me. Turning on the headlamp I found another Eastern Screech Owl. Though I tried to serenade it with my own calls it remained quiet. But, I managed to get some photos with the headlamp/flashlight.







It flew a short distance and posed nicely while I took a few pics. The light did not seem to bother it as it casually turned its head in different directions looking for something. It then wiggled and flew off again.









Though the images are really noisy at ISO 64,000 and 1/30 sec exposure I feel that the light source does not appear to adversely affect the birds as long as I'm not shining directly in their eyes. There is always concern and debate about using Flash on nocturnal birds so I believe this is a nice compromise. 

The images clean up nicely in Lightroom using AI Denoise (50%). Red-eye reduction is performed manually by selecting the eye region, then Modify(ing) the Selection by first Expanding the region 1 pixel, then using Hue/Saturation Adjustment to desaturate the eye region before lower the Lightness slider to darken the eyes (60-70%).

Pte. Mouillee SGA (permit required Sep 1-Dec 15), Monroe, Michigan, US
Nov 21, 2025 7:54 AM - 8:14 AM
Protocol: Stationary
Checklist Comments:     Dark, 45F, calm
1 species

Eastern Screech-Owl (Megascops asio)  1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S285414515

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)