Yardbirds and Owls in Lima

The solstice is still a week and a half away, but with the first significant snowfall this past week the activity at our feeders has picked up. In particular, this male Red Bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) has been making frequent forays to our back yard for a bit of sustenance:


Other regulars include Dark eyed juncos, House finches, Black-capped chickadees, Tufted titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Mourning doves, and Downy and Hairy woodpeckers. A couple of days ago we were graced by a pair of Northern Flickers too. I've noticed a marked increase in the number of Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) showing up, sometimes as many as eight or ten at a time. Here's a male perching in one of our scrub pines after picking up a seed from the snowy ground:


Our household has gained a new member too!

Sophie's about six months old (we think). One of Dawn's co-workers found her outside their house, where they theorize that she was dumped. She's sweet and full of energy, though she's still a little wary of the dogs, especially the rambunctious Quest who at nearly ninety pounds and the advanced age of three still acts like a puppy.

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Yesterday we took a trip to the town of Lima, about 45 minutes south of Rochester. I'd heard reports of active Short-eared Owls (Asio flammeus) there for the past week or so and I was anxious to see some for myself, having missed the opportunity to observe them last year. The sightings in Lima have been in the farm fields along Townline Road. Because they're crepuscular critters they get going at just about the same time as the sun is setting. A decent pair of binoculars lets you see them in the dusky twilight, but photography's tricky, especially for autofocus systems that rely on contrast sensitivity.

Townline Road rises up a long hill for about a mile before becoming an upaved seasonal road. Our trip up the hill was unrevealing. We passed a fellow birder heading down the opposite direction who'd had no luck either. We turned around, prepared to creep back and forth for a while, but it wasn't long before Dawn spotted an immature Northern Harrier coursing over the fields:


Then as we continued down the hill right in front of us perched an owl on a lone fence post, not far from the road. I stopped the car and started shooting:


When the owl had tired of our attention it flew away:


We pulled off the road and I got out as more of the birds appeared over the field. Dawn preferred the warmth of the car and stayed inside. We saw as many as five or six of the owls at a time, but none would come as close as our perching friend. The low light made flight shots difficult, but out of a couple hundred frames there were a few that were acceptably clear:




I looked up the road and saw a long line of cars drifting toward us. They parked behind me and doors opened, disgorging a dozen birders clad against the wind and rapidly cooling air:


It was a tour from the Rochester Birding Association. They'd come from Nations Road in nearby Avon. It's usually a reliable place for spotting the Short ears, but today they'd come up empty, so they made the short drive east to Lima. The owls continued to fly, migrating up and down the hill. We followed, our impromptu convoy crawling back and forth along Townline road to keep pace with the birds.

The harriers and owls share the same grassland and marsh habitat as well as the diet of small mammals dwelling in the fields. They tolerate each other, grudgingly it seems. Conflicts occur on a regular basis. Here, a harrier and owl get into a bit of a row:


The owl on the left is easily distinguished by its heavier body and its large, blunt head. In flight the two birds have different wingbeats and field markings, so misidentification is easily avoided.

The sun dropped below the horizon and the east side of the hill was thrown into shadow, challenging my Canon 20D, forcing me to shoot with a slower shutter and a wide open aperture to suck in every bit of light that remained.




A hour and a half in the cold had left my fingers stiff and my feet frozen. I was about to return to the car when a handsome male "grey ghost" harrier flew across the road behind us, passing close by:


It seemed a fitting way to end our trip, so we started for home, waving our good-byes to the folks from the RBA. I'm sure we'll be back before long; the spectacle of all those owls and harriers out hunting is too good to pass up.