About 5:30pm today (Thursday 24 April) Ann Mitchell & I were on Van Dyne Spoor Rd when I noticed a SHORT-EARED OWL flying north toward us over the middle of the flooded marsh. It then proceeded to hunt along either side of the ditch which runs along the north side of the road. We had prolonged excellent views in broad daylight as we stood outside the car. Several times the owl came past us as it hunted, and several times it pounced in the grass, but without success. After it moved beyond us we continued driving east, and passed it when it perched atop a small tree. A few minutes later as we went west again, we again passed a SHORT-EARED OWL. Then we were confused because we saw a SHORT-EARED OWL hunting ahead of us. Indeed there were TWO giving us great looks while they hunted the same strip of land. At one point one of them pounced and stayed down, apparently successful, but remained visible to us. This was one of the best looks at the species I've had and a surprise this late in the season. I considered whether they were here to breed, but this did not seem to be a pair becaus both appeared to be males, with white (not ochre) bellies. We did not scan similar habitat to look for additonal owls. They were still present when we left a few minutes after 6pm.
--Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
