FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Short Ear Owls At Paradise/Sinclair Area S-2

["Preston Forsythe" <pns_for@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov. 19, Shari and I observed 4 Short Ears in area S-2. We stood still in 
the middle of the gravel road and the owls time after time flew within 50 to 
100 ft. This was at 4:45 pm cst, 15 minutes before dark. The owls were not 
"barking" as they sometimes do, but they were sparring or dog fighting....We 
also observed 7 Northern Harriers during our first 5 minutes around 4:30. One 
juvenile with its brownish orange red body was incredible in the evening 
sunlight as it flew by close to the ground. We hope this cold wx will drive the 
Short Ears south to this location as the counts have been down the last 4-5 
years compared to what they were around 2000, when we would sometimes see 20 to 
30 during the last 30 minutes of daylight. The Northern Harrier numbers have 
stayed up during that time so we do not know why the Short Ear counts have 
decreased other than maybe from the foul toxic particulates from the fossil 
fuel plant. Hopefully, the air is becoming cleaner as the plant has modernized 
to a degree? The numbers may also be low due to the mild winters, remember last 
Jan. was a relative warm one for the records.

The refuge has several fields of wheat planted and I would say they have the 
best stand of green thick healthy wheat we have noticed for years. Canadian 
Geese love those fields and we will try to count them soon as there could be 
over 200.

Owlingly,

Preston