On the Hunt for Short-eared Owls

Yesterday, I was finally able to go look for short-eared owls. My two previous attempts to find a day to get away hadn't worked out. The weather was supposed to be so nice and warm that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take advantage of it. I figured that I might actually not freeze my butt off this year while standing around waiting for the owls to show themselves.

     My plan was to stop at the lake front first and see what kinds of waterfowl were on Otsego Lake. I was eager to get back to bird the lake because the last  time I was there I thought I saw white-winged scoters. Unfortunately I didn't have my scope with me then to completely verify that's what they were. The lake is usually my best bet for finding something unusual.

  There were plenty of geese, mallards and ring-billed gulls on the lake. A recent post on the internet mentioned a possible sighting of cackling geese at the state park located at the opposite end of the lake. I looked through the geese at the lake front for cackling geese, but I couldn't really be sure if there were any. Some seemed smaller and the forehead of some seemed steeper, but I just wasn't getting cackling goose off of any of them. I remember someone once saying that he hears cackling geese before he sees them so I guess I'll have to try and memorize their vocalization.

    There were no waterfowl by the docks. The birds were far off and difficult to see even with the scope. I spotted one bird that looked like it could be something unusual. It had a long neck; a grebe perhaps? There had been a recent report of a horned grebe seen from the lake front, but I couldn't make this bird out. Darn diving birds. This bird wouldn't stay up above the water long enough to get a good look at it. Time was running out and I still had to find the owls. I was disappointed that I couldn't stay and look longer, but I had to go.

   Some say that this will be an irruption year for snowy owls. Some areas in the state have been reporting them so I tried to keep an eye out for them in the fields just in case, but driving and looking for owls doesn't work very well. Actually I wasn't seeing any birds, zip,  zero, nadda, as I drove along. So far this trip was a bust. I finally reached the field where I was going to look for short-eared owls. Not a creature was stirring. I stood there waiting, thinking this was going to be another bust and that luck just wasn't with me when I noticed something gliding off in the distance. It was a large silver bird with dark tipped wings... a gray ghost.. a male northern harrier. I watched it glide around, a gorgeous bird, and then I watched another and another. All right, enough with the harriers, I thought, let’s see some owls.

  Something that could have been an owl flew across a field and landed in a tree. I peered at it through my scope. Darn bird, it sat on a branch on the opposite side of a tree so all I could see was its white belly and dark tail, Was it an owl? a female harrier? I re positioned myself, walking into the field for a better look at it, but I still couldn't tell. I couldn't see the head. 

  It was getting darker. Those harriers were still flying about everywhere. Many of the birds I was seeing were keeping to the farther edge of fields that were adjacent to the road I was on. A bird flew across the sky just above the trees in the fields. Was it an owl? I tried to get it in my scope, but my scoping skills are still a work in progress. I thought I was getting pretty good with my scope from all the practice I was getting at the hawk watch... but apparently not. Another bird flew along the tree tops. I couldn't find that one in my scope either. Drat, was this going to be how my search for owls ended?

  Then across the field came a stocky bird with shorter, broader wings and a flat face that looked like it had flown into one too many walls. An owl, hurray! I got a fairly decent look at it with my binoculars before it turned and went into the field across the way. I watched it fly around the field in the fading light where it was joined by another one. They flitted about calling back and forth. Another owl then flew up in front of me apparently drawn to the noise the two others were making. I watched this owl as it flew off getting my best look at an owl that night.

  Things became quiet after that as darkness slowly enveloped me and I prepared to head home for the night. I don't do much birding in the winter because most birds have gone south. Maybe I'll make "owling" a regular part of my winter bird watching. For now, happy birding.