Short-eared Owl
Scofield Rd. x Buck Rd. north of Ithaca, NY - 8 December, 2007
This female was seen with 2 other birds just before dusk. Here, she has landed on a propanetank behind someone's house to eat some sort of mouse plucked from the neighboring field.
She apparently first ate the rodent's entrails and then swallowed the rest whole (yumm!).
This bird was one of three individuals seen on Scofield Rd. x Buck Rd. north of Ithaca, NY on 2 March, 2007.
These owls were first found here on the Ithaca Christmas Bird Count on 1 Jan 2007, and up to 4 have been
reported at this location since. This night, Deena Schmidt and I watched this bird plopped down into the
snow in a nearby field laying its wings open and spread flat on the snow while it looked around for a few
seconds. The bird then wriggled its way up from the snow revealing a struggling vole(?) in the owls tallons.
The bird then flew farther into the field to a patch of exposed ground where we then left it to dine in peace.
