Barred Owl Encounter in a Kayak

The previous two mornings, my wife and I have been out on the water at Laurel Hill State Park by 6:00am.  We wanted to beat the rush on a holiday weekend and hopefully see some wildlife before the crowds roll in.  We usually see some turtles, maybe a bald eagle, osprey, beaver or muskrat but we were not expecting to see an active family of Barred Owls perched up right along the water.  While paddling, I heard a bird call I never have before so I followed it until I stumbled across an owl perched up about 10ft off the water.  Quickly I realized that there were at least 4 owls nearby calling to each other.  Thankfully I always bring a camera with a telephoto lens.  The owl shots were taken with a Nikon Z6iii with the Nikon 180-600mm super telephoto.  Since it was just about dawn, the light levels were low, but it worked well enough.  Some of the shots were even taken at 1/60 of a second while being zoomed to between 400mm to 600mm and still came out sharp from a floating kayak handheld!