Nature: Short-eared Owls wing it to Ohio in larger numbers this winter

A short-eared owl hunts from a perch/Jim McCormac

Nature: Short-eared Owls wing it to Ohio in larger numbers this winter

Columbus Dispatch
January 7, 2024

NATURE
Jim McCormac

Ohio’s six species of regularly occurring owls are generally much easier to hear than see. The big three in central Ohio are the barred owl, eastern screech owl and great horned owl. While barred owls sometimes pipe up during the day, and occasionally perch in visible spots, they are mostly nocturnal. The other two are far harder to stumble into during the day, but often frequently call after dark.

Two additional owl species migrate through in spring and fall, and occasionally overwinter. I wrote about northern saw-whet owls in my Nov. 19 column. The elfin hooters remain well-secreted during the day and are very tough to find. The vast majority that pass through Ohio are never detected. Ditto the spectacular long-eared owl. Even if your eyes wash over one, you might miss it. A long-eared owl can compress its body to stick-like dimensions and look all the world like a broken-off branch.

Enter the short-eared owl. Finally, an owl that can be easy to clap eyes on! The tawny-colored birds are fairly large — about the size of a Cooper’s hawk — but very long wings make them look larger in flight. Unlike their arboreal brethren, short-ears favor open grasslands and typically roost on the ground. They blend perfectly with senescent winter grasses, and about the only way of spotting a resting bird is to accidentally flush it.

Fortunately for wannabe observers, short-eared owls typically begin hunting before nightfall. Sometimes they hunt during the day, although more typically become active near dusk. But there’s usually still enough light to observe the charismatic beasts as they perch on saplings or road signs, or course about the meadow like giant moths.

The short-eared owl has one of the broadest distributions of any owl. It occurs on all continents except Antarctica and Australia. In addition, it breeds on the Hawaiian Islands, various Caribbean islands, and the Galapagos. In North America, it nests in the northernmost states, across Canada into tundra regions, and Alaska. Nearly all owls that appear in Ohio are migrants or winterers, although short-ears have bred here on occasion.

This is the winter to find short-eared owls. They are notoriously cyclical in annual abundance, as population movements are largely dictated by prey abundance. Small rodents, especially voles, are the owls’ stock in trade, and voles have periodic boom-and-bust cycles. Who knows where all of Ohio’s short-ears came from this winter, but they certainly originated in northern haunts. Crashes in prey populations sent them south, and they hit the mammalian Holy Grail, as meadow voles seem to be booming in Ohio now.

Anywhere with expansive meadows might produce owls. Good local spots to look might include metro parks such as Battelle Darby Creek and Pickerington ponds. Lots of short-ears have been seen at Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, about an hour north of Columbus. I made the image that accompanies this column in large Conservation Reserve Program grasslands in Marion County on Dec. 27, and at least a dozen birds were present.

I’ll beg forgiveness for saying that short-eared owl watching is a hoot. Fiercely territorial, hunting owls frequently aerially spar with other owls that venture near, as well as northern harriers, the latter a hawk of open grasslands.

Spats are loud, with combatants issuing loud barks like angry terrier dogs, or frightening screams. In between squabbles, the birds hunt voles and make frequent stoops into the grass. The miss rate seems high, possibly because meadow voles make grassy tunnels and rarely venture out of these runways.

Hunting owls may be relying more on acute hearing, and probably often pounce on the source of the noise, sight unseen. Such work isn’t easy, but overall, they do capture plenty of sausages with legs and the owls are a major factor in regulating small mammal populations.

I should note that their short “ears,” which are small feather tufts that are normally hidden, have nothing to do with hearing. The real ears are large hearing organs on either side of the head. The placement of the ears is asymmetrical — one is slightly higher than the other. This means that sounds arrive to each ear milliseconds apart, which allows the hunter to better triangulate on the source.

Sometimes, following a boom year for wintering short-eared owls, some remain to nest. It will be interesting to see whether nesters are detected this spring at any of the wintering hotspots. The last confirmed Ohio nesters that I’m aware of dates to 2004. Perhaps 2024 will bring our next short-eared owl breeding record.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

A short-eared owl hunts voles on the wing/Jim McCormac

A few more Short-eared Owl images

Incoming Short-eared Owl. The last thing that a Meadow Vole wants to look up and see. As the light was fairly horrific yet the owling was great, I looked forward to a return visit to the site in the previous post. So, after seeing reports of breaking skies and some sunshine towards day's end Wednesday (12/27/2023), Shauna Weyrauch and I headed to Owlsville. The owls certainly didn't disappoint but the weather (and its forecasters) did. The predictions were way off base, and it was misty, foggy, and skies were even darker than during the preceding trip.

Such conditions made photography tough, but who cares? Numerous short-eared worked the fields, and at least as many Northern Harriers. There were many hostile interactions between the owls, and owls and harriers. At times, the angry terrier-like barks and low screams of owls rang out everywhere, mixed with the shrill whistles of the harriers. Not to mention the observation of a vole-caching, as described in the previous post. Just watching the action is great fun.

A Short-eared Owl glares (menacingly? it doesn't look too menacing, but I'm not a vole) at the camera. As sunset approached and the light grew even worse, we headed down the road to see how many owls we could tally, not thinking that any additional photography would bear fruit. We didn't get far before encountering the individual above, perched obliging at eye level and very near the road. The bird cared not a whit about our presence and continued surveilling for other owls, and harriers, while presumably also watching for voles. I got the vehicle into a good position, killed the engine and we began shooting out the windows.

It became apparent that the owl wasn't concerned with us. These owls are fairly tame, but this individual was unusually so. As the light was now really poor, we began playing with much lower shutter speeds to keep the ISO down. Shauna had it best as the owl happened to be on her side of the vehicle and she could use the door as a de facto tripod and brace her rig on the sill while using the vehicle as a blind of sorts.

PHOTO NOTES: Eventually I decided to slowly, quietly and carefully exit the vehicle, get my tripod out, and mount the rig on that. No issues, the owl didn't react. Thus stabilized, I was able to drop my shutter speed WAY down and still obtain sharp images. The image above was shot at 1/50 of a second at f/5.6, which gave an ISO of 1250. My Canon R5 handles higher ISOs well, and 1250 isn't too tough on it, and applying Topaz Denoise later helped clean up the image even more. Other than occasional turns of its head, the owl didn't move, so as long as I didn't fire while it was turning its head the bird might as well have been a feathered rock, especially as there was no wind. The previous image - of the same owl - was shot at 1/400 at f/5.6 (that aperture is wide-open on my Canon 800 lens) and that yielded an ISO of 1/5000. That image was made earlier in the sequence, before I bottomed out at 1/50. It is decidedly "noisier" than the image directly above, but it isn't too apparent as not much cropping was required.

Naturally the first image had to be at a much higher shutter speed, to freeze the flying bird. I went as low as I felt that I could work with and still obtain sharp images, which was 1,250 of a second. Again, at f/5.6 (I shot everything wide open on this dim later afternoon) and that produced an ISO of 10000. FAR higher than I like but there was nothing to be done about it. Fortunately, the bird came very near, and I got my shot when it was quite close, thus eliminating the need for heavy cropping which greatly intensifies noise caused by high ISO values.

In hindsight regarding the perched bird, I should have switched to 2-second timer delay and used touch screen focus. By doing so, I could have just touched the rear screen where the owl's head was (ALWAYS want eyes to be sharp). The touch would trigger the shot sequence to commence, and two seconds later the camera would fire, after any slight movement I might have caused while touching the camera to set focus would have stopped. About the only thing that could go awry is if the owl moved during my exposure, but if so, I would just retake another. By doing this, I could have experimented with exposures as low as 1/30 or 1/25, maybe even 1/10, and thus dropped the ISO much more while probably still managing sharp photos.

Short-eared Owls

 

A Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) watches for prey from atop a Honey Locust sapling. It was in the midst of hundreds of acres of grasslands. At least ten other owls shared its haunts, and at least as many Northern Harriers (Circus cyaneus).

A favored winter activity of birders, your narrator included, is watching Short-eared Owls. The charismatic raptors move southward from their breeding grounds in cyclically varying numbers. Some years, like this, there are lots of short-eareds about (at least in Ohio). In other winters relatively few are to be found.

On December 22, I made a trip to an area in north-central Ohio that is playing host to many owls. They were on the wing by 4 pm, but heavy cloud cover meant the light was poor. So, killer photos were not possible, but I share some documentary images here.

A Short-eared Owl sits atop a road sign. As long as observers are quiet, the owls pay us little mind. I crept up on this bird in the vehicle, was able to get to about 30 feet from it, kill the motor, and watch. It was beyond dusk by this time, and light was extremely poor. Much post-processing was necessary to make the image presentable. But making great owl pictures is at best half the fun. Photos or not, Short-eared Owls are charismatic and always interesting to watch.

I was pleased to see that an owl would habitually return to hunt from that locust sapling in the first photo. It meant that there would be plenty of action. Short-eared Owls are fiercely anti-social when hunting, seem to maintain loose territories, and don't hesitate to scrap with other owls (or other raptors). Several times passing owls would drop down to take a swipe at the bird in the locust. That triggered locust-owl to shoot aloft and engage the other in a dogfight, as above. Such squabbles are an aural treat, as the owls bark like angry terrier dogs, and emit low cat-like screams.

A short-ear on the hunt. Incredibly acute eyesight and hearing enable them to pick up the slightest movements and sounds caused by rodents below.

Quick as a wink, this owl pirouetted on a dime and dropped hard into the grasses. I saw many such hunting attempts this evening, and nary a bird came up with prey. The miss rate is often very high.

This is a Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) runway. The burly little rodents are probably the primary prey source for Short-eared Owls and Northern Harriers, at least in these grassland habitats. Vole runways, or raceways, are tunnels in the grass that mostly are hidden by a grassy roof. Occasional openings, as above, will briefly reveal the rodent to raptors coursing overhead.

But I do not think that the owls need to rely on visual identification of prey items such as voles. They likely hear the rodents scurrying through the tunnels, or perhaps gnawing on vegetation. Even with the fine-tuned senses of a Short-eared Owl, it would still be a tall order to pounce unerringly on a vole, sight unseen, especially if it is moving. This may explain the seemingly high miss rate, although rest assured, the owls get many, many voles.

A Meadow Vole dares to peek from a runway. A dash across open ground when lots of raptors are present is a suicide mission for the chunky rodents. Better to stay in the tunnels to up one's survival potential.

Meadow Voles have marked boom and bust cycles. Peaks can occur anywhere from every other year to every third or fourth year. The reasons for these fluctuations are imperfectly understood, but one thing is for sure: raptors quickly pick up on areas rich in the rodents. It has been claimed that at least some raptor species can detect vole urine trails visually, as their eyes can detect ultraviolet reflections in urinary compounds. Thus, the birds would view urine trails as easily seen purple squiggles, thus allowing vole-hunting raptors to quickly ascertain areas of food abundance and forgo areas with a paucity of prey. Much has been written about vole urine/UV/raptors, such AS THIS.

This all makes for a great story, except it may not be accurate. CLICK HERE for a paper that delineates the ability of select raptor species' ability to see into the reflective range of ultraviolet light, and how that compares with UV reflectance from vole urine. It may just be that avian vole-hunters such as Short-eared Owls, Northern Harriers, American Kestrels, and Rough-legged Hawks simply find troves of voles through their extraordinary vision, abetted in the case of the owl and harrier with highly attuned hearing. I have been in sites experiencing very high vole numbers on several occasions, and it was not difficult to detect voles, so many were racing about. Raptors, with their far sharper vision and ability to get an overhead perspective, undoubtedly quickly assess vole populations.

UV-reflective vole urine aside, Short-eared Owl watching is great fun (except for the voles). I hope you get to experience some of these charismatic hooters this winter.

Two owls - one shot. Almost!

A Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) hunts from atop a kestrel nest box. Our team stopped to watch this box because we spotted a red morph Eastern Screech-Owl looking out of the hole. The owl popped back inside when we stopped, and while awaiting his reappearance the short-eared landed. What a shot that would have made, had the little owl looked back out of his hole with the other owl over its head! The short-ear was not hunting the screech owl - the box is just a convenient perch to look for voles and other small mammals - their stock in trade. The big owl up top would not even have been able to see the little one had he peered back out, due to the little roof overhang. As incredibly acute as owls' hearing is, I am sure the boxed owl knew something was atop his home, perhaps hence his reluctance to show himself. Screech-owls are normally not too shy towards humans, at least quiet ones watching from inside a vehicle from a respectable distance.

When I made this shot, it was well into dusk and light was scarce. The image parameters are f/5.6 (wide-open with the Canon 400mm DO II and 1.4x extender), 1/50, and a very high ISO of 12,800. When we left a few minutes later, it was too dark to shoot pictures and getting too dark to even see the screech-owl if he did reappear in the hole (which I am sure he did, eventually). Chandlersville Christmas Bird Count, Muskingum County, Ohio, yesterday.
 

Snowy Owl snow-bathing, Short-eared Owls roosting

 

As always, click the photo to enlarge

I sorely needed a field foray yesterday. However, the weather was not overly alluring. Temperatures were in the low teens when I set out, skies were gray, and a stiff wind blew from the north. Seemingly not great conditions for photography. Fortunately for me, photography is only part of the equation. I am just as happy watching and observing.

I first visited the huge dam at Alum Creek Reservoir in Delaware County, Ohio - not far from home. I was there to pay a visit to the magnificent Snowy Owl that has been there all winter, to the delight of thousands - no exaggeration - of people who have seen it.

Like people, Snowy Owls have distinct personalities and I have seen ones that won't tolerate anyone near them. Others, like this girl, seemingly could care less about people. This one has chosen by far the busiest locale in this sprawling state park to call its winter home. Scores of people walk, run, cross-country ski and bird here, every day, in close proximity to the owl. There is even a busy remote-controlled airplane airfield here! It cares not a whit. And food must be abundant. I personally am quite glad it chose this spot, as so many people have gotten to see this majestic Arctic bird firsthand, the vast majority for the first time. Including many kids. I'd bet the Alum owl might have created more than a few birders, and future biologists.

Anyway, when I arrived the owl was not evident, but I quickly saw a largish flock of Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs, and Snow Buntings swirling about the top of the dam's long grassy slope. I made the ascent, splayed my tripod out to ground level, lay behind the rig, and let the birds come to me. Soon, like gulls on the beach, the birds were close at hand and at times all around me. After a bit, I sidled over to look down the hill, and there was the Snowy Owl, part way down the hill and looking supreme in a blanket of powdery snow.

In short order, it began to snow-bathe, something I had never seen this species do. She would thrust her head under the snow, throw powder over her body with her wings, and occasionally shake and fluff. That's what she's doing in the image above.

Pleased with how things went down at Alum Creek, I decided to press northward, to a spot that can be good for Short-eared Owls.

I was not disappointed. While still a quarter mile or more from ground zero, I saw five or six owls swirling high in the air. Even though it was noon. The presence of a Bald Eagle flying away suggested that the larger raptor had put the owls up.

The Short-ears soon returned to earth, and settled in. The one above chose a stump in brush, near the road. By using the car as a blind, I could pause nearby without bothering the animals. This one, its head on a swivel, paid me no mind and I enjoyed watching its keen alertness. Even though the middle of the day, if a vole or mouse foolishly showed itself, the owl probably would have pounced.

A fierce-looking Short-eared Owl monitors its surroundings from atop an old snag. I especially loved stumbling into this bird, as he had chosen an especially aesthetic perch.

I came by the perch later, and another owl was sitting just below! That's pretty buddy-buddy for these fairly anti-social owls, and I think the one above is a male, and the other a female. Female Short-eared Owls tend to be darker and buffier, and that's how she looked to me.

The area that I saw these owls - seven in all - is smack in the midst of the Sandusky Plains prairie. This huge prairie system has nearly been eradicated by agriculture, and the few spots that survive are important refugia for prairie denizens such as Short-eared Owls. Given their numbers this winter at this place and other nearby spots, one must suspect that Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) are having a boom year. Maybe other rodents as well. Voles, especially, seem to drive wintering raptor numbers in the Midwest.

Sometimes following a major vole eruption, Short-eared Owls - and Northern Harriers - will remain to nest. Maybe the pair in the photo above. They typically form pair bonds in late winter. Part of this includes incredible "sky dancing" flight displays replete with booming hoots and loud wing claps. I saw none of that yesterday, but will be watching for such behavior on future visits.

Short-eared Owls

A short-eared owl courses low over grasslands in a reclaimed stripmine in eastern Ohio. It and three comrades were mousing, or perhaps more accurately, "vole'ing".

The short-eared owl is one of my favorite birds. Everything about them is cool. Their looks, behavior, and even the vocalizations. Last Monday I ventured to some "reclaimed" strip-mine grasslands in eastern Ohio that have been hosting a handful of these open country owls. Whenever opportunity allows, I'll go out of my way to commune with short-ears, and I got to do a lot of that on this day.

Quite often, short-ear owls don't take wing until dusk, and often so late that it's nearly dark. On such days, the viewing window is short, and what there is, is dim and shadowed. Not this day. The owls emerged around 5 pm and alternately rested on fence posts or the ground, or actively hunted, giving me a few hours of daylight to observe them.

I have noticed that short-ears seem antisocial and irascible, but this churlishness adds to their charm. If two owls come near one another, a spat is likely to erupt. Ditto for any northern harrier that ventures by, and these two raptors are frequently hunting companions in the same meadows. When an agonistic interaction occurs, the owls will rapidly fly at one another like giant enraged moths, barking like terrier dogs. Sometimes you'll hear the strident yips before spotting the dueling birds.

One perk of being in the presence of short-eared owls is having the opportunity to photograph them. Making good shots is often not easy, in large part because of poor light at or near dusk. The light in this situation was okay. By the time the owls commenced flying, the blue skies of earlier had clouded over to the all too common white skies found in Ohio. While I used to hate white skies as a backdrop for birds, I've come to rethink that stance. Sometimes raptors, cranes, waterfowl and other species can be portrayed quite pleasingly against such backdrops.

At times, short-eared owls will soar and circle high in the air, and that's what the animal in the image above was doing. I was tracking him with my tripod-mounted telephoto as he came ever closer. There's a tip for shooting flying birds: pick up and lock focus on your subject as far out as possible - even when it's still out of range - and grab the subject using AI servo tracking mode, then when the quarry comes into range (if it does), start firing away.

Some amount of positive exposure compensation is required for birds against a pale backdrop, and that's what I did here. The latter shot was made with the tripod-mounted (Gitzo, with Wimberly head) Canon 5DSR and Canon 800mm f/5.6 lens. The camera was in manual mode, wide-open at f/5.6, and 1/1250 shutter speed. ISO was 1000, and in Auto ISO mode. Manual Mode and Auto ISO are by far my favorite bird settings. I want to be able to alter both shutter speed and aperture instantly, but do not want to worry about manually manipulating the ISO. As the latter is always displayed in my view finder, I can quickly rein it in if need be by opening the aperture and/or slowing the shutter speed. In the case of this shot, I didn't want to go any lower than 1/1250 because I know from experience that if I dip below that my percentage of sharp shots of flying birds will suffer. I had nowhere to go on the aperture, as f/5.6 is wide open on that lens. So, given the less than optimal light I had to settle for ISO 1000 - a bit over what I prefer but not too bad.

More Short-eared Owls (because you can never have too many owls)

Photo: Dane Adams

A Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus, flops its way over a Hardin County grassland. The owl's fierce visage is somewhat neutralized by its amusing mothlike flight. At least they may be amusing to us - large bipeds have little to fear from these hooters. Put yourself in the paws of a small rodent, and the owls are no laughing matter, as we shall see.

I recently wrote about the Lawrence Woods Short-eared Owls, HERE, and then later received a report from Cheryl Erwin that even more owls had appeared at this locale and were at least on occasion hunting well before dusk. That sounded positive for obtaining photos, and better admiring the owls' curious antics, so I stopped by a few days ago. Dane Adams visited the following day, and made some of his always outstanding images, some of which he was kind enough to allow me to share.

This is the entrance drive to Lawrence Woods State Nature Preserve, and the owls can usually be seen quite well from this road. Although the preserve's centerpiece is the big woods, seen in the backdrop, there are hundreds of acres of meadows that are frequented by birds of prey.

The Short-eared Owls have a penchant for perching on the fenceposts adjacent to the lightly traveled county road that abuts the preserve's north boundary. It didn't take long to spot an owl teed up and ready for photos.

Short-eared Owls are the extroverts of the owl world, and generally pay people little mind. With a modicum of basic courtesy, they can be admired without bother. As long as one stays in the car, and doesn't approach too closely, the owls will utterly ignore their admirers. This is NOT true of most owls, such as the closely related Long-eared Owl. CLICK HERE for some pointers on how to admire the spookier owl species without disrupting them.

Support your local state nature preserves. Ohio is fortunate to have over 100 preserves which collectively support most of the floral and faunal biodiversity found in the state, including the rarest of the rare. CLICK HERE to become an active supporter of the Ohio Division of Natural Areas and Preserves.

At one point, a female Northern Harrier, Circus cyaneus, attempted to cross the big meadow. Big mistake. The harrier was like a Blood attempting to infiltrate Crip turf. Several Short-eareds immediately scrambled skyward, barking like annoyed terriers, and gave chase. In this distant photo of the action, the harrier is at the far right, about to suffer another owl strafing. It was just bushwhacked by the owl at the far left. Mrs. Harrier did not linger long.

Photo: Dane Adams

An owl carts off a little furry hotdog with legs, a Meadow Vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus. These small rodents have lemmingesque boom and bust years, and this apparently is a boom year. Watch the snowy ground at your feet for a bit at a place like Lawrence Woods, and you'll see one of the little rodents make a dash across the snow. Raptors quickly figure out where the voles are high in number, and move in to capitalize on the mammalian bonanza.

It does not behoove the long term survival of a Meadow Vole if it shows itself. Not that they live long anyway, but if one foolishly sticks its nose above ground, it's odds of ending up as an owl pellet rise exponentially. Therefore, voles craft tunnels under the snow and grass; sort of like rodent subways. But every now and again a vole must come topside and that's when the ever vigilant owls are there to pounce. CLICK HERE to learn more about these important rodents.
 

I made this image from the vehicle, from 75 or so feet off using my Sigma 150-500 telephoto lens. That was obviously plenty close enough to admire the animal, and make some nice images, but not near enough to pester the bird. In fact, to momentarily divert its attention to look at the camera, I had to squeak like a mouse. I suppose you might say that squeaking at an owl is pestering it, but I don't think so. The owl briefly stabbed me with those glaring yellow eyes, then resumed its constant scanning of its surroundings.

Photo: Dane Adams

One can never have too many owls in their life, and should you wish to enrich your owl quotient, don't forget the Ohio Ornithological Society's upcoming Owls of North America Symposium. All are welcome, and all of the details are RIGHT HERE.

Short-eared Owls at Lawrence Woods

A pair of Short-eared Owls, Asio flammeus, hunt over an old field in the gloom of post-dusk. The other bird is in the background, bottom righthand corner of the photo. Don't expect award winning owl photos in this post - the short-ears didn't take to the wing until it was nearly dark and it was all my camera could do to make any images at all.

Short-eared Owls can be curious and this fellow suddenly materialized over my head. It's always a treat to watch these owls hunt the grasslands and meadows, barking and scuffling with neighboring owls and occasionally plummeting earthward to Whack-A-Mole (or vole). I saw four, and possibly five, owls tonight. A Northern Harrier was working the fields earlier, and a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk was also nearby.

This was the place of the owling - Lawrence Woods State Nature Preserve in Hardin County, Ohio. We're looking east down Township Road 190, with the preserve lands on the right, and a big prairie/grassland on the left, the latter courtesy of Pheasants Forever. The big woods - the preserve's namesake - can be seen way off to the right. This preserve encompasses over 1,000 acres, and roughly half is the woods, and the rest is meadow. The owls were hunting the field on the right, and were easy to view until conditions grew too dark.

This map shows the locale, should you wish to go Short-eared Owling at this spot. The area outlined in blue are the good owl fields. The section of Township Rd. 190 highlighted in red bisects the fields, and there is virtually no traffic along here and the verges are wide and flat, so viewing from an automobile should be no problem. The red line heading south from 190 is the gravel drive back to the preserve parking lot, and good viewing can be had from there as well. Note that the preserve is open only during daylight hours, though.

U.S. 68 can be seen on the left of the photo, and the city of Kenton is a few miles to the north. This site is less than an hour from Columbus, and makes for a great field trip. There is a fabulous boardwalk through the woods, and traipsing its length prior to nightfall should produce Red-headed Woodpecker and all of the other expected woodpeckers. Barred, Eastern Screech, and Great Horned Owls are also present, so with a bit of luck and careful listening you might tally four species of owls at this site.

Short-eared Owls join the Army

Major Randel Rogers, Ohio Army National Guard, sends along news of an interesting report. Some of his men discovered a gang of Short-eared Owls sitting around on a bunch of National Guard jeep hummers. Why these owls would choose heavily armored military vehicles as a roosting spot is open to speculation, but I have my theory.

Thanks to Major Rogers, and J. Valentine and T. Friend for bringing the owls to our attention and snapping the following photos. The owl spot is along James Road on the east side of Columbus – a stone’s throw from the vast and vole-filled fields of Port Columbus International Airport.

Photo: J. Valentine

Click the pic and look closely – at least four Short-eared Owls can be seen sitting around on the hoods of the Hummers. And there were several others. Trust me – none of these photos are faked; these owls really are roosting on Army Hummers in a heavily urbanized part of Columbus. Again, this odd behavior shouts out for answers.

Photo: T. Friend

A closer view of one of the savage-looking and exceptionally clever beasts.

So why are the owls adorning military Hummers?

Because of these. Meadow Voles. The nearby open grassy expanses of the airport undoubtedly support scads of the little rodents, which are a favored prey item of Short-eared Owls. But this still doesn’t explain the owls’ highly unusual selection of roosting in a military depot filled with heavily armored war craft.

I have a theory.

Our little furry brothers, the Meadow Voles, have been oppressed for thousands of years. And owls are The Great Oppressors. Think about it. You’re a guy – albeit a guy with four legs, furry, with stubby ears – who really doesn’t bother anyone, just tunnels about the meadow grazing on succulent plant matter. But every time you or anyone in your community pops above ground, death lurks in the form of large shadowy owls patrolling overhead. An eon of living with that threat would cause any class of oppressed animals to throw off their shackles, rise up, and attempt to cast out their tormentors.

The airport voles have become the rodent world’s Egyptians and the Short-eared Owls are the avian Hosni Mubaraks.

I believe these voles have begun The Fight to end their persecution. Voles aren’t dumb. By gathering a volatile mix of airport de-icing chemicals, decaying roots of fescue grasses, common road salt and their own dung, and fermenting the whole mess inside discarded sandwich baggies that litter the grounds, they’d have a highly potent explosive. By harvesting strongly flexible shoots of the numerous sandbar willows (Salix interior) that grow in the airport’s low swales, vole warriors could easily craft powerful catapults that could be used to launch Surface to Air Missiles (SAMS) packaged tightly in the sandwich baggies.

I suspect that a Vole Liberation Army (VLA) has developed technology that allows them to blast Short-eared Owls from the skies with their willow-fired SAMS. These guys send a few owls hurtling to the ground like flaming Roman Candles, and word’s going to spread quickly amongst the short-ears that a new Sheriff is in town.

Photo: T. Friend

But owls are no dummies, either, and are further advanced along the evolutionary scale than their now arch-enemies the voles. And if you think that these feathered Attila the Huns are going to run from a battle, you’ve got another thing coming.

The owls’ problem is now a technological one. The Old Ways of conquering and holding the voles in the shackles of oppression no longer work. Merely plucking the tiny beasts from the grasses with their admittedly formidable talons is now an exercise in extreme peril. Send a few owls crashing to earth in a blazing heap via vole-fired highly explosive SAMS, and it’s time for a New Way.

Enter the National Guard. Brilliant and opportunistic, the owls would have long ago noticed the nearby depot with its fleet of highly armored and heavily armed Hummers. Probably, had the voles not upped the technological ante, the owls would have never tapped this resource. My hunch is that the short-ears are now hunting the voles under cover of darkness in these wheeled death-dealers. The voles’ SAMS would be impotent against such armored cars, merely exploding harmlessly against the Hummers’ flanks while the owls laugh and sneer from within.

Equipped with their new military hardware, the owls now have a wide range of armaments with which to deal with the voles: flamethrowers, heavy machine guns, incendiary bombs, light nuclear warheads, and powerful wrist-rocket slingshots, all wrapped up in a highly mobile SAM-proof wheeled vehicle.

Score: Voles – 1. Owls – 2.

I’d recommend that the Guard keep close tabs on their Hummers.

Beautiful raptor photos

Dane Adams recently sent along a few of his typically stunning photographs, these of raptors that he found at Big Island Wildlife Area. And equally stunning is the Short-eared Owl photo, taken by Russ Reynolds and also at Big Island. All of them are arch-enemies of the mouse in the previous post.

Have a look.

Northern Harrier, Circus cyanea, male. Harriers can look quite owl-like when seen perched, as in this photo. They have exceptional hearing, and use this sense to track prey, probably to a much greater degree than most other hawks.

In flight, harriers are a snap to identify. They typically hunt low over meadows, rocking and tilting in a manner suggestive of a Turkey Vulture. Long pointed wings and a conspicuous white rump clinch the ID.

Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus, photo by Russell Reynolds. These odd owls hunt open meadows, and often engage in comical conflicts with Northern Harriers, which hunt in the same places. Their ears are truly short, and rare is the opportunity to observe them.

A beautiful female American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, in typical wire-sitting pose. This is our smallest falcon, and a raptor that has suffered significant population declines in parts of its range. The reasons for such losses are varied, and include habitat loss, large-scale conversion of lands to exceptionally "clean" agriculture that greatly reduces kestrel food, pesticide use that triggers downturns in insect prey populations (kestrels eat lots of grasshoppers in summer) and increased competition for nesting cavities. A more insidious impact, at least in some areas, may be the spike in Cooper's Hawk populations; these aggressive accipiters are reported to take kestrels.

In the very long term, kestrels in Ohio are probably a "boom and bust" species. Prior to European settlement, most of the state was densely forested and generally not good habitat for a raptor that frequents open places. As settlers cleared the land of trees, much suitable habitat was created and kestrels moved in and prospered. Now, the hand of man is tilting the odds against kestrels.

Forty years of American Kestrel data from the Columbus, Ohio, Christmas Bird Count. Not an encouraging trend, and it isn't hard to find similar cases of decline.

Cooper's Hawk data, also from the Columbus CBC and for the same years. Again, not an uncommon trend in many areas. While hawk predation may play a role in the decline of Columbus kestrels, I would say - based on over 30 years of participating in this count - that habitat loss is factor #1.

If you would like to learn more about kestrels and their status, check out this research from Hawk Watch International.

More Short-eared Owls

I found myself at Big Island Wildlife Area yesterday, and stayed until late afternoon, when the Short-eared Owls emerged. The number of owls using this nearly 6,000 acre wildlife area has grown steadily since I last reported on them. We saw about ten of them at once last evening, and many others were present elsewhere. There might be as many as 40 or 50, all told.

There's a reason that so many rather antisocial owls are packed so densely, and the answer dwells within this tunnel. If you find yourself at Big Island on an owl-seeking mission, take a moment to scan the snow-encrusted ground for holes such as this. Then look within, and if the occupants have been active of late, you'll likely see fresh grass cuttings and tiny feces that are shaped like Tic-Tacs.

The owl's favored fresh meat - Meadow Voles, Microtus pensylvanicus, the maker of the holes in the snow. Snowfall serves these chunky mouselike rodents well. It insulates their runways, and probably increases the temperature within their grassy domain. Perhaps better yet, the snow offers camouflage from the numerous aerial predators that like to snack on them.

Cute as a button, and to an owl, a furry bratwurst with legs. In spite having snow-covered shelter in the form of a labyrinth of tunnels, the voles just can't seem to resist flirting with danger. They'll poke from their holes, apparently for a look-see around the landscape, or make mad dashes across open ground.

Such boldness can be a fatal mistake.

Like feathered predator drones, the platoon of owls thoroughly sweeps the fields, and those ultra-sharp eyes and ears don't miss a trick. Even a vole's quick run from cover is enough to send a Short-eared Owl barreling down and bushwhacking the little rodent before it knew what hit it.

I have to chuckle at the nattering nabobs of negativity who love to chatter about wetland/wildlife restoration projects funded by sportsmen's dollars. They perpetually claim that such work only goes to benefit ducks, as that's all that hunters care about, and the agencies that oversee such projects only aim to create "duck habitat" and could care less about nonhuntable critters.

A short decade ago, the land now frequented by these owls was in rotations of soybeans, corn, and wheat, and had been for decades. Miles of drainage tile siphoned away the water that moistened this fomer wet prairie, drying the soil enough that crops could be grown. Now, because of the Division of Wildlife's restoration work - funded by sportsmen's dollars - a much more diverse ecological system of prairie plants thrives. Wilson's Phalaropes have bred here, as have many other nongame wetland-dependent birds. The spike in plant diversity jumpstarted the food chain, allowing important prey species such as meadow voles to flourish. And thus the owls have come, to delight the scores of (mostly) non-hunting birders that come to admire them.

If you don't pay for habitat conservation via a hunting license, consider purchasing a Migratory Conservation and Bird Hunting Stamp ("Duck Stamp") or the beautiful new Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp.

Short-eared Owls are quite distinctive, even from afar. They row through the air with deep floppy wingbeats, jagging erratically over the hunting fields. If a vole reveals itself, the owl might briefly hover before plunging down and attempting to seize it.

Short-ears rank high among the most interesting birds to watch. They really don't seem to care for company, but when so many owls are hunting the same area, as is the case at Big Island, conflicts abound. These two crossed paths, and began barking at one another and dropping their talons in a threat display. A bit of strafing, barking, and showings of the claws, and they went their separate ways.

I hope you can make it up to Big Island to see the show. The owl circus seems to have shifted to fields along Espyville Rd. (T-84) between State Route 95 and La Rue-Prospect Rd. The wildlife viewing deck off 95 can also be good, and owls are being seen over the large impoundments on the north side of LaRue-Prospect west of Espyville Rd.

A scan of the map in THIS LINK will reveal all of these sites, and if you make the trip soon I'll guarantee you'll see owls. Just remember, these flat-faced hooters are most active late in the afternoon, towards dusk, and that's when you should visit.

Short-eared Owls

Short-eared Owl, Asio flammeus. Photo by Douglas Ritzert.

Indications are that this'll be a good winter for one of our most interesting birds, the Short-eared Owl. Reports of numerous short-eareds are coming in from scattered sites around Ohio, including Big Island and Killdeer Plains wildlife areas about an hour north of Columbus.

I headed up that way after work last Friday, and wasn't disappointed. There are few spectacles as entertaining as watching a bunch of these odd unowllike owls working the meadows, diving at prey and jabbering and fighting among themselves.

Vast expanses of wet prairie have been restored at Big Island in recent years, and this is the vista from the observation platform along the north side of State Route 95, not far west of its junction with State Route 203. If you want to watch the show, this is the spot. I watched about six short-eareds from this very place, and occasionally one would pass quite near. It was even possible to hear their odd terrier-like barking yaps, given liberally when any other owl or perhaps a Northern Harrier would invade one's space. Doesn't seem like owl habitat, but Short-eared Owls are very much birds of open landscapes, hunting the same ecosystems that host meadow-dwellers such as Eastern Meadowlarks and harriers.

You'll have to forgive my photos - it was pretty much dark when I made them, and I don't yet have the big lens for my new Nikon D7000. These were shot at great range in dusky conditions with a 105mm and cropped - not the right way to go about capturing such beasts on pixels.

In spite of photo quality issues, the utterly distinctive flight style of the Short-eared Owl can be seen above. "Moth-like" perhaps sums it up best; deep rather languid wingbeats that give the impression that the owl is gently floating through the air. The above photo shows this owl's wings near the apex of its upstroke. Short-eared Owls are actually capable of clapping their wingtips together and creating a loud smacking sound, and such wing claps are part of their courtship display.

If you get into a situation where numerous Short-eared Owls are hunting the same turf, it won't be long before you'll see some hostile encounters. These birds rank high among the world's most antisocial beasts, and when not paired off for breeding purposes, they generally despise the presence of other raptors. Above, two owls conflict after too close of an encounter. Their dogfight was filled with protesting barks, strafing, and fabulous bursts of speed. It didn't last long and the Alpha reclaimed his position.


A half-dozen Short-eared Owls quartering a field seems rather a haphazard thing, with owls streaking, floating and diving in all directions. I doubt that it is, though. They are after little rodents called Meadow Voles, which are like lemmings in that they have boom and bust years. This winter, apparently, is a boom year at least locally.

Voles create well-defined runways through the grass, and if you learn to recognize these chutes and watch for them, they can be fairly conspicuous. These grassy corridors are the voles' super highways, used repeatedly in their forages. I suspect that rather than roam the fields haphazardly, hoping for a vole to appear, the owls tend to follow the jigs and jags of the vole runways, upping their odds of an encounter.


Short-eared Owls are crepuscular - active in the twilight hours. This works to our advantage, as it's often plenty light enough for great owl observing when they start to become active. If you'd like to go enjoy the Big Island short-eareds, I'd recommend getting up there an hour or so prior to dusk. There are also plenty of Northern Harriers, and if you arrive early enough you'll witness the changing of the guard, as the harriers pack it in for the night and the owls start to become active.

On the way back, my route took me through Upper Sandusky, where I encountered a fantastic sea of Christmas lights. Driving along North Sandusky Avenue - the main drag - past Harrison Smith Park, I was floored to see a virtual eruption of colorful lights.

This display is known as the Winter Fantasy of Lights, and you can read more about it HERE.

If you are into such things, it's an easy trip to Upper Sandusky from the owl-watching havens of Big Island and Killdeer Plains.

And if you want a great place to dine, right down the street is MJ Mugsy's, which is magnifico!

Not a bad evening: owling, over the top Xmas lights, and fabulous Italian food!