Short-Eared Owl II

I was very gratified by my success in photographing the Short-eared owl yesterday BUT after getting some of my morning behind me I had a little time before meeting friends for lunch. I decided to drive back out to the same area where I photographed the Short-eared owl yesterday to see if it might still be around. The weather was clearing and I found as I left the island that the day was bright and at times the sun was even shining. When I reached the area where I had seen the owl the prior afternoon I slowed and started watching the fence posts along the road. I was almost startled when I noticed a shape on top of almost the same fence post as my sighting the prior day! Sure enough, it was my friend... and in considerably better lighting conditions than the previous day.

The owl seemed to want to ignore me and I was afraid for awhile that it wasn't going to turn to look at me, but it finally gave me a couple of glances before heading down the ditch and then out across the fields in search of prey.
So here are today's photos which are considerably better than those I took and posted to my blog (joehalt.blogspot.com) yesterday.
 
 

 

Short-Eared Owl

I was having a ‘good knee day’ today (12/21/2009) and drove over to Edison to take a friend to lunch. On the way home I was driving down the Bayview-Edison Road, talking on my cell phone, when I caught a glimpse of what was obviously a raptor, and probably an owl, sitting on one of the fence posts on the side of the road. I turned around and retraced my route looking for what I had seen. I couldn’t find it and decided it had flown, but when I turned around to continue my journey I found the owl. I was able to stop my vehicle and take several one-handed photos (I was still on the phone!) before it flew to another fence post just a little further along. I repeated the process at about three fence posts before continuing my journey.


This experience was a nice welcome back to the birding world that I’ve had to mostly forgo for the past several weeks. I’ve birded this area for over eight years and seen many Short-eared owls flying, a few sitting on posts but at some distance but this is my closest encounter ever. It’s a nice ‘welcome back’ to the world of nature!