Happy New Year everyone! It's worthwhile noting that Short-eared Owls seem rather abundant this year and it may be beneficial scouting large fallow fields during evening Civil Twilight—when the birds begin to forage.
January 1st, shortly after 5pm, there was a single foraging SHORT-EARED OWL within the fenced-in confines of the Ithaca Tompkins International Airport, seen at a distance from Snyder Road (near the Cornell Chemical Disposal Site building) looking Southwest. The bird was occasionally visible with binoculars when it passed in front of lighted airport hangars. The bird was first spotted by me while using a thermal-imaging monocular—easily visible in the thermal scope as a white bird fluttering in moth-like fashion above the distant field. This is a "safe" non-roosting location for disclosure, because nobody can wander onto the fenced-in airport fields. The bird was also seen by Scott Anthony, as well as Marianne and Andrew Ridley—owners of the thermal scope. We also spotted a non-vocal Great Horned Owl perched atop the Cornell Chemical Disposal Site building; which later flew and perched in a nearby tree—easily visible using the thermal scope. Recent SEOW sightings may be found by searching eBird’s mapping tool (Species: Short-eared Owl; Date: Jan-Jan, Current year; Location: Tompkins County; Select “Show Points Sooner" if zoomed out): https://ebird.org/map/sheowl?neg=true&env.minX=-76.75796935096129&env.minY=42.142747964409615&env.maxX=-76.1763806058441&env.maxY=42.74672139161836&zh=true&gp=false&ev=Z&excludeExX=false&excludeExAll=false&mr=on&bmo=1&emo=1&yr=cur Please respect private property and give owls the space they need to roost, feed, and forage without disruption from their routine. Good birding! Sincerely, Chris T-H -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes — Field Applications Engineer K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA Work: +1 607-254-2418 Mobile: +1 607-351-5740 FAX: +1 607-254-1132 https://bioacoustics.cornell.edu -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") Cayugabirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/cayugabirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) aba_DOT_org/birding-news/ Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
