WINTERING LONG-EARED OWLS

      One winter afternoon, several years ago in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I walked through a two-acre patch of coniferous trees heaped with snow.  I heard something slapping needled, snow-covered boughs ahead of me and saw snow showering down from those limbs.  Then I saw a few large birds winging deeper among the evergreens, and away from me because they were alarmed at my approach.  Not to press them further, I stopped and watched them from where I stood.  They were owls, and I later learned they were long-eared owls.  

     Since that time, I've been thrilled to see several little groups of wintering long-eared owls roosting by day in groves and clumps of tall evergreen trees in various suburbs of southeastern Pennsylvania.  Those beautiful owls remained on their shadowy, needled perches and stared down at me, I guess because they felt secure there.  

     After looking at the owls briefly, I quickly scanned the ground below their roost to spot their pellets, which are gray, elongated blobs of mouse bones wrapped in fur.  Hawks' and Owls' stomachs digest what is edible, but wrap fur around the bones and those predatory birds cough up the pellets and spit them out.  A person can take those pellets apart to see the bones and teeth, and even identify what kind of rodent those remnants represent.     

     Like most owls, long-ears hunt rodents at night and rest on sheltering perches during the day.  Long-eared owls leave their planted coniferous roosts on lawns soon after sunset and swiftly fly to nearby feeding fields to hunt mice.  If spotted perched or flying, the owls will be silhouetted black before golden or red sunsets, or gray clouds.  But they can be identified by their crow size, slim, upright bodies when perched, and long, feathered tufts on top of their heads that give them their common name.   

     Long-eared owls are beautiful birds in a camouflaged way.  They are dark-brown all over with much black barring and striping.  They have a large circle of short, rusty-orange feathers around each eye, and yellow irises.  

     These owls live across much of  the northern hemisphere.  They nest farther north than Lancaster County, but winter here, as we've seen.  They migrate through, and into, here during October.

     Long-eared owls are attractive birds that can be spotted among evergreens on peoples' lawns.  But one has to look for them flying to feeding fields at dusk, or inspect taller conifers, and the ground below them, for the owls, and their tell-tale pellets.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SPRING ON THE UPPER CHESAPEAKE

      I visited the Upper Chesapeake Bay at the Community Park of Northeast, Maryland one afternoon about the middle of March a few years ago, as I had several times in different seasons before that day.  This time, I went there to spot migrating water birds of various kinds.        Because of their high numbers, gulls and ducks were the dominant birds on the ice, and strips of open water among the slabs of ice because of the warming weather in March.  Most of the handsome ring-billed, herring and great black-backed gulls stood picturesquely on slabs of ice.        The attractive, adult ring-billed and herring gulls are mostly gray on top, white below, and look much alike, except the herrings are larger and have a red mark on their beaks, whereas each ring-bill has a black "ring" around its bill.  Largest of these gulls, the stately, mature black-backs have black backs and upper wings and are white below, making a striking, attractive plumage pattern.        All three of thos
Read more

DADDY-LONG-LEGS

     During summer, over the years in southeastern Pennsylvania, I've seen many daddy-long-legs on the bark of tree trunks on lawns, and in parks and woods.  They blend into the color of tree bark well and are difficult to see.  Many people never see them at all until those camouflaged little critters are pointed out by people in the know about them.        Daddy-long-legs have eight, really long, thin legs, but they are not spiders.  But they are arachnids, and related to spiders.  These attractive, little creatures, called daddy-long-legs because of their long legs, have quarter-inch, compact bodies raised on stilt-like legs.  They have two dark eyes and feel the vibrations of birds and other predators with their legs.  But these arachnids have no venom, or silk to make webs.        Daddy-long-legs, like all other living beings, are part of several food chains.  They consume tiny invertebrates and decaying plant and animal materials they find on tree bark.  And, in turn, many of
Read more

FATHER FINCHES FEEDING FLEDGINGS

     While sitting on our back deck to enjoy the lovely scenery and weather during the afternoon of July 21, 2023, I noticed a tiny, red speck in our tall Norway spruce tree on our suburban lawn in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Peering at that red spot with 16 power binoculars, I saw it was a beautiful male house finch feeding three fledgling house finches; his offspring.  Those gray and dark-streaked young birds fluttered their wings vigorously while being fed invertebrates and seeds.  And the wild charm of those birds was decidedly enhanced by the deep-green of the needled spruce boughs.        Those four house finches were a lovely, exciting sight to me.  I know that species of small birds raises young in our neighborhood every summer, including a pair of house finches that hatch offspring on a support under an awning over our deck.  But never before had I watched a father house finch feed his young outside their twig and grass cradle.  And when that male finch flew off the spruce lim
Read more