Short-eared Owls

 

January 19th

          In the late afternoon, Mike and I drove to some farm fields west of Bowling Green to look for Short-eared Owls. The owls generally become active at dusk and can be seen patrolling the farm fields and grasslands in search of voles and other rodents.  As darkness approached, we could see the ghostly outline of two Short-eared Owls in the distance.  They were too far away to get any photos, but we got nice looks with our spotting scope.  Mike has a couple of photos from a previous year that I will post below.

          In autumn, Short-eared Owls fly south from the far north and arrive in our area as winter begins and stay until spring. The owls are widely distributed around the world, but their population has significantly declined in North America over the last 40 years due to loss of farm and grassland habitat. (1 new species, total 107) 

                                                      Short-eared Owls

Comments

  1. AnnJanuary 20, 2022 at 5:15 AM

    I love watching these birds fly. It looks like they are floating through the air.

    ReplyDelete

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