Great Horned Owl

....but you would never know it from the image!  One of my friends at water aerobics told me about an owl family at a nearby park so I decided to have a look today.  I saw two babies (the other is in the extras) and one adult, also in the extras.  I really liked this shot because s/he looks so fuzzy and cuddly, almost more like a mammal than a bird.  

Can anyone give me advice on how to avoid blowing out the sky as I did in my second extra?  The owl was in a really shadowed area with the bright sky behind it.  I had to adjust the exposure so the owl could be seen and then the sky was too bright.  I run into this problem frequently when photographing birds.  I shot that one with my DSLR and my settings were f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 640.  Any advice would be appreciated!

I am grateful that it finally stopped raining and the sun came out today!  Everything is so fresh and green. :-))