STORY AND PHOTOS BY W.H. “CHIP” GROSS
WOODS, WATERS, AND WILDLIFE
LONG AND SHORT OF IT Taking a look at some winter visitors from the far north Each winter, Ohio is invaded by mysterious aliens that sail south from Canada on silent wings. But these migratory birds — short-eared and long-eared owls — are no longer feared as the portenders of death that most owls were during centuries past. Rather, a glimpse of the owls is eagerly sought by today’s birders as a special seasonal treat, another check mark to add to their life list.
Short-eared owls
The pointed protuberances on the heads of these two owl species that give them their names are not really ears, but rather, just feather tufts.
“Wildlife research has shown that when meadow voles move through their runways in the grass, they leave ultraviolet trails, the UV likely being contained in their urine,” McCormac says. “The owls can detect these trails and in turn know that meadow voles are present. If they detect a large number of trails, the owls stay and hunt; if not, they move on.”
“An owl’s real ear openings are hidden beneath feathers along the sides of its head,” says Jim McCormac, one of Ohio’s leading field naturalists. He is the author of Birds of Ohio, a co-author of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II, and a contributing editor for Bird Watcher’s Digest, a prestigious, national birding magazine that is published in Marietta, Ohio, by the Thompson family.
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OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • FEBRUARY 2018
Sometime this winter, near dusk, if you see a large bird hunting over an open, grassy field, its flight pattern resembling that of a giant, flitting moth, you’ve probably just spotted a short-eared owl. The owl is searching for meadow voles, its preferred food, and knows where to hunt by employing a sense humans don’t possess.
McCormac remembers one extremely large concentration of short-eared owls that occurred one winter about 20 years ago at The Wilds in southeastern Ohio. “One birder counted more than 50 short-eared