FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Rectortown Short-eared Owls, and assorted raptors - 3/4

["Scott Priebe" <falco57@xxxxxxx>]

Arrived at the now famous field a bit early at 4:30 PM (wasn't sure how long it 
would take to get there). Good views of a N. Mockingbird in the briar bush 
across the street. A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks breeezed-by behind the 
pavilion about 4:45 PM. A Red-tailed Hawk flew in to a tree across the field 
from the pavilion, right after the Red-shouldered's, to escape the wind, but a 
pair of crows put paid to that idea. Another birder on a quest for Short-eared 
Owls showed up about 5 PM. We both scanned and froze in the wind, until 5:15. 
Then abruptly, as if on cue, three Short-eared owls popped up out of the field 
right across from the driveway, maybe 40 ft. from the road, swirled about in 
the wind for maybe thirty seconds and settled back down into the field for easy 
viewing while standing on hummocks. I love it when birds, especially a lifer 
for me, are on time. Five minutes later the reported pair of N. Harriers swept 
into the field and gave a show cruising and swooping about in the wind. A 
fourth S.-e. Owl put in a brief appearance, followed quickly by a veritable 
caravan of S.-e. Owl cravers (maybe 15 in all). Oddly enough, the entire time I 
was there only one vehicle passed by without stopping and disgorging a person 
with binoculars. I left about 5:50 PM (after over an hour in that wind, my 
teeth were chattering too much to hold my binoculars steady), so more owls may 
have shown later. Had I the foresight to bring coffee, I may have lasted till 
dusk.