FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] Pre-Sun Rise Short Ears at Paradise/Sinclair

["Preston Forsythe" <pns_for@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Correction to my prior posts on Short Ears. The owls are very active from 
0530-0630, local time. We were out at area S-2 at 0445 to watch the conjunction 
of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. The planets were at their closest point in 
decades this morning. It was partly cloudy but we had good looks at the 3 
planets. With your hand up at arm's length a finger tip easily covered all 3 
planets. Then, as a bonus, around 0530,  we started hearing short ears, yeeeap, 
yaaap. They were aggressively flying and sparring while calling all the time. 
We have not been hearing their calls on our evening owl sojourns. Several flew 
close to our p/u. It really was not that cold so we walked around some and we 
could hear and see the owls nearby during the beginning of morning nautical 
light. We observed as many as 4 at one time and a total of 8 over about one sq. 
mile. Nice red sunrise. The 3 planets will still be close on Monday am, just 
not as close...Since our last post we have been out to S-2 three times and we 
have averaged 8-10 short ears and an equal number of harriers.