Owl Watch

After hearing about the terrific opportunities to observe the Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) at fairly close range near the town of Avon, New York, Dawn and I decided to take a trip ourselves to see what ornithological wonders we might discover. Avon is a farming community about a half hour south of Rochester. The daylight was fading by the time we found our way to Nations Road, where the owls appear to have taken up residence. We drove the length of the street, which is partly paved. The other part is a gravel road, heavily rutted and very rough.

On our initial trip down the road, we saw nothing but a few crows and a Red-tailed Hawk. We turned back, thinking we were going to have to go home disappointed, when Dawn saw a couple of birds flying low over one of the fields. One of them crossed the road to our right, and landed in a tree. Unfortunately, it didn't look much like an owl. It had a long barred tail and brown coloration, with a spotted back and wings. Oh, and it had one more thing-- a white rump patch. We didn't have an owl, but a juvenile Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) wasn't such a bad consolation prize! However, things were about to get a lot more interesting. Turning back toward the field, we found a second harrier, and then a third! We saw none of the "Grey Ghost" males, so we assumed we were seeing either females or more juveniles. I pulled the car over to the side of the road, and rolled down the windows. The chill of a 22°F (-2°C) breeze swept into the warm interior of my Honda Pilot but we persevered with our viewing. It wasn't long before I spotted a couple of birds flying higher than the harriers, but these were a bit smaller, and lighter colored. Sure enough, we had found the owls! They were pretty far away, though, and even in the spotting scope they were hard to see.

As it turned out, the birds seemed to be cavorting near a long, private drive that went up to a farm house. We spotted no fewer than 5 of them in the air at once, playing tag much like we've seen the juvenile Peregrines do. I headed up the drive, which was posted with no trespassing signs, and hoped for the best. To my surprise, a car drove toward us from the large farmhouse. The driver stopped, and I asked for her permission to spend some time there watching the birds flying over her fields. She agreed, and drove on, so we pulled over and I set up our scope again.

We were rewarded with views of up to five owls, and a couple of Harriers. We were both surprised to see these two species coexist, but it's not really that unusual I suppose, since they have similar hunting styles and prey preferences. That they were competing for resources in the field became apparent when Dawn saw a Harrier go talons up to fend off one of the Owls that got a little too close. The Owls fought amongst themselves, too. We watched as one lucky Short-eared pounced on a field mouse. As soon as it got into the air again, another owl gave chase. I tried to get pictures, but by the time I got my camera ready, the chase had ended. Oh well.

Speaking of pictures, I took a few (does 88 count as a few?). The cold weather, overcast skies, fading light, and my own lack of practice worked against me, though-- Very few of them were sharp enough for reproduction here. However, there were a few worth showing, so here they are:

     

     

A couple of final notes... Though it wasn't apparent to me, Dawn noted that as I was taking pictures of some of the owls, they turned to look right at me when the camera's shutter sounded. It's not that loud, and we were probably 40 feet (12 meters) away from the nearest ones, so I took that as an impressive demonstration of their remarkable hearing. We had some pretty good views of the owls perched on fence posts and rails, especially through the spotting scope. Unfortunately, the DX6490 isn't an ideal digiscoping camera. I regretted having left Dawn's Kodak CX6230 at home, since I've had some success with that camera as a digiscoper, and I might have been able to shoot some good shots with it.

After an hour of watching, we were both pretty well frozen and the light was nearly gone, so we packed up our gear and headed for home. It won't be our last visit, though I hope for better weather, or at least clearer skies, and some better luck with the photographing next time.