What's that Bird?

We avid birders tend to measure the passing of time, not by birthdays, landmark holidays, or even days of the week. We pinpoint our moment on the great time continuum using two tools – the sun and the seasonal birds. To most people, ‘winter’, conceptually speaking, means sledding, mittens, holiday lights, roaring fires and hot chocolate. I, and other birders anticipate winter with the same childlike exhilaration, but not for the hot chocolate (which you can enjoy year-round, by the way). No, our boreal delight comes with black-rimmed piercing eyes, a loud ‘Eeee-yawk’ call and breathtaking aerobatics. Of course, I’m talking about the short-eared owl!

Wintertime on the LHT brings these very special guests from their home in the frozen north. They are partially migratory, moving south in winter from the northern parts of their range. The short-eared owl occurs on all continents except Antarctica and Australia; thus it has one of the most widespread distributions of any bird. It breeds in Europe, Asia, North and South America, the Caribbean, Hawaii and the Galápagos Islands.

So why do they make such a dramatic annual migration? Rodents. When the rodent population thins in the tundra, short-eared owls make the trip to more temperate climates in search of food. And, as any rural Mercer County resident knows, we’ve got rodents-a-plenty. Enter our ornithic pest-control, owls.

Short-eared owls are crepuscular, meaning that they hunt at dawn and twilight. They roost in fields (not in trees), so when the light is low, they erupt from the tall grass like a firework and begin their search for voles and field mice. You’ll often see several short-eared owls hunting together since they roost in small groups. It’s important to clarify that ‘together’ means that they’re hunting at the same time, not collaboratively. In fact, it’s common to see mid-air scuffles in which short-eared owls will divebomb each other in an effort to steal another’s catch.

Aside from these aerial displays (birders call it ‘the show’), the short-eared owl (birders call them ‘shorties’) is popular for its striking beauty. You may never see their short-ears, as they mostly keep them tucked down, but you will see a face with a penetrating stare, augmented by a dramatic black outline of feathers, resembling kabuki makeup. These eyes are encircled in white with the owl’s iconic facial discs. The body is mottled brown, blending seamlessly into its grassland habitat.

How can you find them? One of the best ways to locate short-eared owls is to first locate a hunting ground. Because owls swallow their food whole, they cough up pellets that are mostly undigested fur and bone. Fields containing short-eared owls are often littered with these pellets. Look for grey, furry blobs about the size of walnuts, if they’re on the trails or in the fields, you’ve got owls.

As I mentioned, your best times to see them are right before sunrise and right after sunset, but you can occasionally see the owls during the afternoon on days following particularly heavy rain or snowfall that might have prevented them from hunting the night before.

I really can’t overstate the thrill that seeing short-eared owls provides. You get to experience the whole owl package – hunting, fighting, dynamic flying, their battle-cry ‘Eeee-yawk!’ and that face, that beautiful face.