Tuesday, December 21, 2010

285 & 2 1st in my life

Well after all my hot-air yesterday about sitting at 284 for the year - I had a days worth of field work in prime Snowy Owl habitat. Snowy Owls had been reported recently north of Toronto, north of Guelph, and New York. - Guaranteed Snowy Owl... Right?! They've finally arrived?!

Nope...

Long day of searching, but nothing. Ok - the next plan - start searching random clumps of white pine for Long-eared Owls (another i'm missing). Searched far and wide, on public and private property, on.. well never mind. There weren't any Long-eared Owls either.

No big deal, the owls are still easy. 286 is still easy. There is still time for someone to find a Black-headed Grosbeak on a CBC... I still have time to find an Ivory Gull... There's still those two stupid owls..  I finished the day off doig a survey for Short-eared Owls (pretty common this fall/winter in southern Ontario, eh?)

The sun set on another day.. Dark, and no luck on getting my owls. But what is that?


Strange place for a Short-eared Owl to sit (thicket), and strangely long ears on that Short-eared Owl. We stopped the car only 30 feet from the bird, and had a really unusual look at this Long-eared Owl. I've never seen a Long-eared Owl "come out" at dusk before, and it was (amazingly) cooperative enough for me to try and capture the scene with my camera. A great end to the day, and #285

   Just when you think the day is over, something great like that happens. Awesome end to the day. Wait, what is that?


Ok, so it's not the Snowy Owl I was searching for, the Long-ear was enough. But it's still an awesome sight. We had a Short-eared Owl attacking a Great-horned Owl - long after the sun had gone down!!!

I pushed the camera's ability here, but was really happy to at least have some sort of documentation of the scene. 



So there you have it! Just when the day is over, I see two things I've never seen before in my life:

- A Long-eared Owl becoming active (and VISIBLE) at dusk
- A Short-eared Owl dive-bombing a Great-horned Owl.


Isn't birding great?

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